July 6, 1895.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



5 



Each rude and jostling fragment soon 



Its fitting place shall find— 

 The raw materials of a State, 

 Its muscle and its mind. 



And westering still, the star which leads 



The new world in its train 

 Has tipped with fire the icy spears 

 Of many a mountain chain. 



Whittier's dream in poetry has come to pass, and as 

 we leave the lock6 and slowly steam up the canal we pass 

 great modern steamships laden with the results of the 

 Yankee's thrift and toil, aided by the host of "furineers" 

 we have invited to this land of the free. We leave the 

 canal and the Upper St, Mary's River is before us, and we 

 settle down for a quiet afternoon's sail, fifteen miles of 

 river is soon passed over and the bold headlands 600 or 

 700ft. above the level of the lake mark where the river 

 ends and the Great Lake begins. This headland wa9 

 named by the old voyageurs Gros Cap. Parisian, Maple 

 and Sandy Islands are passed in turn. 



Taquamenon Bay or White Fish Bay, as it is called, is 

 off to our left, and it is only after we are fairly across it 

 and White Fish Point, forty miles above the "Soo," is 

 passed, that we feel fairly afloat on the waters of the 

 "brother to the 8ea." 



The twilight deepens and one by one the stars shine 

 forth and the crescent moon shows dimly through the 

 fleecy clouds that drift so slowly over the sky. The dark 

 waters, as black as ink in the gloom, are thrust aside by 

 the steel prow of the Athabasca and break into a wave, 

 foam crested, on either side of the huge hull. We stand 

 at the bow of our ship, and as we gaze ahead over the vast 

 expanse of water, that has been the theme of poet's pencil 

 and artist's brush, we feel the spell comes stealing o'er us 

 in the breath of the summer zephyr which is wafted 

 over the crystal waters of this unsalted sea. Poetry, not 

 pr jse, seems to be the fitting manner of expression and all 

 we have read comes back to us with double meaning. 

 We do not remember the authors always, but the lines are 

 fresh in our memory: 



"Father of lakes, thy waters bend 

 Beyond the eagle's utmost view, 

 When, throned in heaven, he sees thee send 

 Back to the sky its world of blue. 



"Boundless and deep, the forests weave 

 Their twiiight shade thy borders o'er, 



And threatening cliffs like giants heave 

 Their rugged forms along the shore." 



We turn from the bow, and as the evening air is cool — 

 it always is on Lake Superior — we pace up and down the 

 deck, and for fear our better half will become satiated 

 with poetry, we fire off a few dry statistics. The lady in 

 question does not like statistics, and says she hates maps, 

 but sometimes she gets cornered where she cannot run 

 away, for instance on a boat on Lake Superior, and then 

 she has to listen. Will the reader listen, too'? If not, 

 skip a little. Lake Superior is the largest of our inland 

 seas, between 46"' 30' and 49° north latitude and 84° 30' 

 and 93° 30' west longitude from Greenwich, and is situ- 

 ated at a height of 600ft. above the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 distance therefrom about 1,800 miles by its natural course. 

 It is 460 miles long from east to west, and 170 miles 

 broad — extreme breadth — with an average of 85 miles; to 

 travel round it you would go 1 ,200 miles. Its extreme depth 

 is 900ft., which makes its deepest waters 300ft. below the 

 ocean's level. Thirty-one thousand five hundred square 

 miles is its estimated area and it is the largest body of 

 fresh water on the globe, Its waters are as clear as 

 crystal and as cold (nearly) as ice. If you fall overboard 

 you will become chilled so suddenly that your chances of 

 rescue will be nil. (This causes a shudder and a tighter 

 grip of the lecturer's arm.) Many a strong man has gone 

 down into the blue depth owing to this fact. The tonnage 

 of vessels now sailing on this great sea and passing 

 through the "Soo" Canal is greater than passes through 

 any other canal in the world. The - — , but what fol- 

 lowed was lost in the clanging of the steward's bell, and 

 that ended the lecture, for we are all human, and who 

 can resist the call to supper on a Lake Superior steamer; 

 so in we go, and with appetites sharpened by the ozone 

 laden breezes of this northland,' we discuss something 

 more tangible, if not more solid, than statistical facts. 



Of course the "Soo" whitefish is always on the bill of 

 fare, and of course we do not miss it, for to the writer's 

 taste it is the finest of fishes. We call for a generous por- 

 tion, and as it disappears we say to the companion of our 

 joys (no sorrows at this time), "When we finish supper I 

 will read you some poetry on the 'Whitefish.'" "Never 

 mind," is the reply, "the fish is good enough without 

 poetry as a sauce, and my physical being is more in need 

 of food than my mental." However, when supper was 

 passed and we sat in the bright and warm social hall of 

 the ship, and while listening to the musical efforts of 

 some of the passengers, she had to listen to the lines of 

 Schoolcraft, who evidently had eaten "Soo" whitefish, 

 too: 



"All friends to good living by tureen and dish 

 Concur in exalting this king of a fish; 

 So fine in a platter, so tempting a fry, 

 So rich on a gridiron, so sweet in a pie, 

 That even before it the salmon must fail, 

 And that mighty 'bonne bouche' 1 of the land, beaver's tail. 



'"Tis a morsel alike for the gourmand or faster, 

 While white as a tablet of pure alabaster; 

 Its beauty or flavor no person can doubt, 

 When seen in the water or tasted without; 

 And all the dispute that opinion e'er makes 

 Of this king of lake fishes, this 'deer of the lakes,' * 

 Regard not its choiceness to ponder or sup, 

 But the best mode of dressing or serving it up. 



"Here, too, might a fancy to descant inclined 

 Contemplate the love that pertains to the kind, 

 And bring up the Bed man in fanciful strains 

 To J rove its creation from feminine braiui." + 



"Ther, , what do you think of that?" 

 "Oh! did you speak to me, dear?'' 



Now, wasn't that too much, and a compliment at the 

 end to the female race and thrown away. The Lake Su- 

 perior air, the whitefish supper, the music, the poetry, or 



*The Indian name for this fish as ad-dik-keem-maig, the "deer of the 

 Jakes,'" is a liter*! translation. 

 }:Vidi Indian tsjes and legends. 



all, had been too much and my partner had been "nid- 

 nodding." 



"Oh, yes," I replied. I said we bad better retire early if 

 we want to be up in the morning to see the glories of the 

 north shore, 



"Very well, dear, I do feel sleepy; I think it's the air." 



F. F. Frisbie. 



Dktroit, Michigan. 



[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA.* 



WobKs on North American ornithology are sufficiently 

 numerous, but most of them are so technical in character 

 and so expensive as to put them out of the reach of a very 

 large proportion of those persons who are interested in 

 birds. The latest work on this subject, from the pen of 

 Mr. Frank M. Chapman, assistant curator in the depart- 

 ments of mammalogy and ornithology in the American 

 Museum of Natural History, of New York city, 

 is, however, neither technical nor expensive. Mr. 

 Chapman has made, as he tells us, "an honest 

 attempt to write a book on birds so free from 

 technicalities that it would be intelligible without 

 reference to a glossary , and . . . to do this in a volume 

 which could be taken afield in the pocket," He has 

 given us what his personal experience with students of 

 birds has taught him to believe would meet their wants. 



The present volume deals with the species found east of 

 the 90th meridian. It contains keys to the families and 

 species, descriptions of their plumages, nests and eggs, 

 their distribution and migration, and a brief account of 

 their haunts and habits, with introductory chapters on 

 (1) the study of ornithology, (2) how to identify birds, 

 and (3) how to collect and preserve birds, their nests and 

 eggs. 



Mr. Chapman is well qualified to write a popular book 

 on birds. He has long been associated with Dr. J. A. 

 Allen in the American Museum, has had access to its 

 large collections and has had a very large field experience, 

 having made frequent trips and extensive collections, 

 chiefly in the South, in Florida and in the West India 

 Islands. In the preparation of this work he has had the 

 assistance of Dr. Allen, Mr. Ernest E. Thompson, Miss 

 Florence Merriam and others, and the result is a most 

 useful volume of 421 pages, which covers the whole of 

 the North American continent east of the Mississippi 

 River. 



The opening chapters of the work treat of the study of 

 ornithology in general, the study of birds out of doors, 

 and the collecting of birds, their nests and eggs. Of these 

 chapters the last two are especially practical and use- 

 ful. For example, the second is subdivided into several 

 heads, as "How to Identify Birds," "How to Find Birds," 

 "When to Find Birds" and "Hints on Keeping Note Books 

 and Journals." Here, too, are given tables covering the 

 spring and fall migrations of birds about New York, giv- 

 ing the dates of arrivals and departures; a table of the sum- 

 mer residents, giving the dates at which they leave us, 

 and a table of dates at which certain birds begin to nest 

 in the vicinity of New York. Here, too, are explained to 

 the student many practical and labor-saving devices 

 which the practical ornithologist has worked out for him- 

 self and which his experience has taught him to value. 



The chapter on collecting is also full of information of 

 great value to the student. Mr. Chapman warns the 

 young collector not to make the accumulation of speci- 

 mens his object, and quotes an admirable extract to the 

 same effect from Captain Bendire's "Instructions," pub- 

 lished by the U. S. National Museum in 1891. 



Coming to the body of the work, we find begun on page 

 41 a key to the orders and families of the birds included 

 in this work, which occupies fifteen pages. This key is 

 illustrated by outline drawings of heads and feet of 

 the more characteristic species of the different orders, 

 about fifty-five figures being used, in some of which there 

 are seven or eight different sketches. The keys to the 

 species of any genus seem to be very simple and very com- 

 plete, and should make the identification of any specimen 

 an easy matter to the student who has made himself 

 familiar with the terms applied to the different parts of 

 the figure of the bird shown on page 33. Following the 

 Latin and English names of any species come descrip- 

 tions of male, female and young, the measurements, the 

 breeding and winter range, a description of the nests and 

 eggs, with the measurements of the latter. With each 

 description of a species is found a very brief biography of 

 the bird, which usually describes one of its characteristic 

 features, often in the form of a quotation from some 

 author who has given special attention to the species; 

 but many of these paragraphs are written by Miss Mer- 

 riam, Mrs, Olive Thorn Miller, Messrs. E, P. Bicknell, 

 Jonathan D wight, Jr., E, E. Thompson, Bradford Torrey 

 and others. Here is one from Mr. Chapman's pen, very 

 happily put: 



"The cowbird is an acknowledged villain, and has no 

 standing in the bird world. English sparrows, either 

 because they are not aware of the customs of New World 

 bird life, or because of a possible and not unlikely affinity, 

 associate with him, but no self-respecting American bird 

 will be found in his company. 



"As an outcast he makes the best of things, and gathers 

 about him a band of kindred spirits who know no law. 

 There is an air about the group which at once tells the 

 critical observer that their deeds are evil. No joyous 

 song swells the throat of the male. His chief contribu- 

 tion to the chorus of springtime is a guttural bubbling 

 produced with apparently nauseous effort. In small 

 flocks they visit both pasture and woodland, and are 

 given to following cattle, clustering about the feet of the 

 berd, presumably to feed on the insects found there. 

 They build no nests, and the females, lacking every 

 moral and maternal instinct, leave their companions only 

 long enough to deposit their eggs in the nests of other 

 and smaller birds. I can imagine no sight more strongly 

 suggestive of a thoroughly despicable nature than a 

 female cowbird sneaking through the trees or bushes in 

 search of a victim upon whom to shift the duties of 

 motherhood , 



"The ill-gotten offspring are born with the cowbird 



* handbook of the "Bird3 of Eastern North America." By Frank 

 1/ Chaptn^, New York; D, Appleton # Co. 



character fully developed. They demand by far the 

 greater share of the food, and through gluttony or mere 

 size alone starve or crowd out the rightful occupants of 

 the nest. They accept the attention of their foster 

 parents long after they could care for themselves, and 

 when nothing more is to be gained desert them and join 

 the growing flocks of their kind in the grain fields." 



The volume is very fully illustrated and in a most use- 

 ful way. The frontispiece is a colored plate of male and 

 female Bob White, and besides this there are twenty 

 other full-page plates, of which two are color charts and 

 the others half-tones, showing groups of birds, many of 

 them from beautiful mounted groups in the American 

 Museum. Besides these the volume is very fully illus- 

 trated by 115 figures in the text, of heads, feet, wings and 

 tail, each one of which tells some story to illustrate the 

 type. The volume is one which must be in the library of 

 every student of birds. 



BREEDING WILD DUCKS. 



Cold SPRING Harbor, N. Y,, June 21.— Editor Forest 

 and Stream.: The expose of the great duck egg fake is 

 quite a relief to the writer. For the past twenty years 

 my hobby has been the breeding of our beautiful wild 

 ducks in confinement, as you have known, but the greatest 

 obstacle is to get the ducks. It seems strange, but is true, 

 that I can buy some American species in Europe that are 

 difficult to get here, and the reason is that over there the 

 zoological gardens breed them and sell the surplus, while 

 there are "waterfowl clubs" and a regular demand for 

 ornamental wildfowl. Therefore this great duck egg 

 business, which no one seemed to doubt, suggested to me 

 a possible source of supply of certain species, and I have 

 been on a wild duck chase for a long time, expending time, 

 stationery and postage with no return to date. Your 

 expose is therefore a relief. 



A dozen years ago I could buy wood ducks by the dozen 

 pairs, but none are to be had now from those who used to 

 get them, but for the last six years I have bred enough to 

 maintain my flock, and do not care to buy wild ones. I 

 have two broods, of 7 and 8, under my window as I write, 

 all hatched on June 7. I always suspected the men in 

 Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, who sold me many wood 

 ducks years ago, of netting them for market and of getting 

 a better price from me for live ones; but my object being 

 to get breeding stock, I did not ask further than "how 

 many and how much ?" I believe this summer resident 

 has been exterminated in many places by the small boy 

 with a gun who knows no seasons when he sees a " wild 

 duck." 



My pintails and teal have been mainly wing-tipped 

 birds sent by gentlemen who know my hobby, but I have 

 bought a few. I have only one pair of pintails now and 

 they were shot at Chincoteage two years ago. They were 

 expected to breed this year, but did not so far. The nests 

 of my green-winged teal were robbed this season by 

 crows, rats or other vermin, and I will not raise one. 

 A young green-winged teal is funny, but he, or she, does 

 not know it; about as large as the last joint of a man's 

 thumb— a mere ball of down colored black and yellow— a 

 little girl said "they look like bumble-bees," and last 

 year's crop were "bumble-bees" until in full feather. 



It has been an off year with my pets; the black ducks 

 and mallards have not laid, the gray and the white call 

 ducks either refused to set or left their eggs after spoiling 

 them, and only one of the Chinese mandarins has laid. 

 Yet with fifteen little woodies to look at in the morning, 

 and to come to the food box later, we are not entirely 

 disconsolate. They are quite tame and will be so until a 

 few weeks older, when I will catch them and with scissors 

 snip off one little wing just back of the thumb; after that 

 they are wild enough and it is the catching, not the 

 clipping, that they fear, for when again tamed they go 

 wild after handling. 



From the great egg fake I had fancied to get some old 

 birds, for young ones would not stand the long journey. 

 In my vision I saw breeding flocks of canvasbacks, red- 

 heads, blue-winged teal and some others; but my eyes are 

 opened, and while the dream will never materialize, 

 it was enjoyable at the time. What of it if we discover 

 that Santa Glaus does not come down the chimney, and 

 later on that there are other cherished beliefs snapped 

 short off: we sigh and look to other sources of pleasure, 

 more or less real, and look back on the fun we had when 

 we did believe that the reindeer of Santa Claus leaped to 

 the housetops, that the storks brought the babies, and that 

 the great Northwestern duck egg company might furnish 

 us with handsome birds as well as albumen for our cakes 

 and candies. After all, it is pleasant to believe that we 

 will catch a creel full of trout when we start, and to look 

 back on the pleasant time we had when we return with 

 our faith in that stream as strong as ever, but lay failure 

 to the wind, the moon, the sun, clouds, or any other thing 

 that comes to hand. The dream of ducks galore has been 

 dispelled as far as the great Northwestern egg fakers are 

 concerned, but it was enjoyable, and is now transferred to 

 a market-shooter who writes every summer to know how 

 many live canvasbacks I will take, and who has never 

 sent one. I tell him to send all he can get up to fifty 

 pairs. This encourages him and does not impoverish me, 

 and it cheers us both. Why not? Fred Mather. 



An Aged Parrot. 



Ithaca, N. Y.— The death of a parrot owned by Wm. 

 A. Bennett, of this city, removes an interesting specimen 

 of bird life, Polly was a bit over sixty years of age and 

 possessed a memory that was wonderful." Her command 

 of language was little short of marvelous. Some fifteen 

 or twenty years ago Polly lived in Scranton, Pa. Her 

 attachment for an old lady of that city was maintained 

 to the day of poor Poll's demise. She tirelessly persisted 

 in lavishing upon "Grandma Atwood" finely modulated 

 terms of endearment. A few years ago she witnessed a 

 melee participated in by railroad employees, and her terse 

 and vivid description of the "scrap" and the solid chunks 

 of Anglo-Saxon hurled about was a startling revelation 

 of mimicry and power of memory strangely out of the 

 common of what we are usually taught to expect as in- 

 herent characteristics of our feathered friends. 



M. Chill. 



Forest and Stream Outdoor Scenes. 



Philadelphia, May 21.— Forest and Stream Pub. Co.: The pictures 

 came yesterday and I am very much pleased with them; they are the 

 best of the kind I have over seen. J, (j, Bkath, 



