184 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 29, 1888. 



after much watching and waiting, and, if the truth must 

 be known, grumbling, dinner was announced, and we sat 

 down to a menu of salt pork swimming in fat, potatoes, 

 and our two trout. The trout we devoured, the potatoes 

 we ate, and the pork we sampled, and then took our de- 

 parture. 



We intended to try several likely looking places in 

 the brook which we had carefully noted in the morning, 

 and on arriving at the first one we stopped. Willard said 

 he would retnarn with the team, so I jointed my rod and 

 William cut a pole which he carefully trimmed, and 

 attached to it a short line. The brook came tumbling 

 down over the rocks, singing as it came a song to which 

 the whispering pines responded, and which we interpreted 

 to be akin to the legend of the trout. A forest-shaded 

 pool, surrounded by great boulders, was at our feet, and 

 if ever there was a trout hole, that was one. So at last 

 we were ready, and the same question rose to our lips — 

 a very important question to us then — "Where is the 

 bait?" 



Yes. where was the bait? Alas, this important adjunct 

 was back at the house, two miles distant. "I thought 

 you had it," said the unhappy photographer. ' 'I supposed 

 you brought it," quoth his sorrowful companion. "The 

 best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft aglee," 

 quoted William as we retraced our way to the carriage, 

 where Willard received us with broad grins and ironica 

 remarks. We climbed in and resumed" our way. It was 

 a charming afternoon and the wood road was like a 

 golden tunnel. The autumn foliage ranged through the 

 whole gamut of color from the most vivid scarlet and 

 brightest orange to the palest amber, and the waning sun- 

 light came down as through the stained glass of a great 

 cathedral. And indeed, were we not in a grand cathedral, 

 in which the gray pillars of the tree trunks supported the 

 golden roof, so gorgeously frescoed by the dying year? 

 A cathedral with a choir of birds, and with Nature for a 

 preacher, and who shall say that the sermon we had that 

 day was not a good one, and that we were not benefited 

 by it. We felt the influence of the place, and the world 

 seemed better and life brighter, and we sang softly as we 

 rolled along. Twice we stopped to let the sun do its work 

 on the sensitive plates, and in the early evening we drew 

 rein at the hospitable door of the Forks Hotel, at the 

 forks of the Kennebec, where the Dead River adds its 

 waters to the former stream. 



We had a refreshing sleep that night, and in the morn- 

 ing were out early looking at the river, which flows 

 directly by the house. We were going to Moxie Falls, 

 five miles distant, and as we had to traverse a rough 

 logging road we carried as little luggage as possible. 

 William of course took the camera, Willard carried my 

 rod, and I shouldered a gun. Before we arrived at our 

 destination it began to rain, but so softly that we did not 

 mind, and we kept on till the distant sound of the water 

 told us that we were nearing Moxie Stream. We left the 

 road and; turned into a scarcely perceptible trail, which 

 led to the top of the fall, and there we sat down on a log 

 to rest.} 



Aujjae Stream, in which the water was rather low, 

 came down between thickly wooded banks, its bed strewn 

 with boulders of all shapes and sizes. The water leaps 

 over the fall, a sheer descent of 95ft., into a circular 

 basin, from which it falls again some 20ft., and then con- 

 tinues on its way down the rock-choked channel. The 

 walls of the channel are precipitous, and on our side there 

 seemed to be no way to reach its foot. 



We waded across just above the fall, and by much 

 scrambling and sliding and clinging to trees and rocks 

 roots, and "holding on by our eyebrows," we finally 

 found ourselves below the cliff, over which the water 

 poured. We were in an inclosure shaped like an am- 

 phitheatre, on two sides of which were perpendicular 

 walls of gray rock, wet and glistening with rain and 

 spray. At the back was the white drapery of the fall, 

 which had the appearance of coming straight down from 

 the sky, and crowning all were the treetops en silhouette. 



A number of large logs, which had come over in the 

 spring, remained where the freshets had lodged them. 

 We seemed to be very insignificant as we stood there 

 with the great rock walls towering above us, and as Ave 

 looked on the picturesque scene we could not help but 

 moralize a little as to the weakness and helplessness of 

 man as compared with the tremendous forces and agencies 

 of nature. 



The pool into which the water descended was black 'as 

 ink. William and Willard unpacked the camera and 

 climbed up the rocks in search of an advantageous place 

 from which to focus on the fall, and I jointed my rod 

 and took position on a log, from which I cast into the 

 cuplike basin below. It was a very trouty looking place 

 and its looks did not belie it. It was not long before the 

 expectant angler felt that thrill come up the silk line, 

 which every fisherman knows so well and which told him 

 of life and motion down there beneath the dark water. 

 How it set the nerves a tingling; it was like feeling of 

 nature's pulse and noting the throbs of the wild, free 

 blood of her great heart. A moment more and a hand- 

 some trout was carefully dropped through the orifice in 

 the cover of the creel, and again and again was this re- 

 peated, the weight of the basket increasing perceptibly. 



They were handsome fish, dark in color with brilliant, 

 vivid spots, as different from their silver cousins of 

 Pleasant Pond as its waters are from those which they 

 so lately sported in. I became so engrossed in my pleas- 

 ing occupation that I forgot my comrades till I heard 

 them shout to me to come up and give an opinion as to a 

 picture they were about to take. 



"Can't come now, I'm busy," was my reply. 



"It's no use to talk to him," put in William, "I know 

 him, and you won't get him off that log as long as there 

 is a fish in that hole: he'd rather fish than eat." 



"Yes," I retorted, "and the world never looks so bright 

 to you as when you are squinting through that lens of 

 yours." 



I was soon interrupted again by a tap on the shoulder, 

 and there stood Willard, who remarked in an insinuating 

 manner, "See here, young man, I lugged that rod over 

 here." There was no resisting such a hint as that, and 

 the rod was handed over and the good work went on. 

 We fished till we had enough, and then, after resting a 

 while and gazing our fill on the beauties of our environ- 

 ment, we prepared to go. William had exposed all his 

 plates, and consequently his mind was relieved. 



We dined on partridge and trout, and after our meal 

 William and the writer took the latter's camera and went 

 to "take" a picturesque old mill which we knew of in a 



solitary place in the woods. The old building stands in a 

 deep and narrow gully, through which flows a brook. 

 The water is conveyed to the wheel through an elevated 

 sluiceway, as the structure is necessarily elevated on tim- 

 bers high above the bed of the stream. As we walked 

 back the setting sun burst through the clouds, and the 

 sky line of the western mountains came out in bold relief , 

 while the long rays falling on the gorgeous coloring of 

 the forest-covered slopes closed the day in a blaze of 

 glory. 



In the evening we drove back to Carney's along the 

 quiet river road. No sound broke the stillness save the 

 rattling of the wheels and the rushing of the river. 



We saw the rippled waters shine; 

 Beyond, in waves of shade and light, 

 The bills rolled off into the night. 

 Once in the far distance, there came to us faintly that 

 most lonesome of all sounds, the weird screaming of a 

 loon. After we reached Carney's we sat up enjoying the 

 calm beauties of the night and listening to the soft, 

 rhythmic flowing of the Kennebec. The mountain back 

 of the house rose black and grim, and over all was the 

 cold, mysterious light of the full moon. 



It was a perfect night and we quoted the words of our 

 New England poet: 



Life's burdens fall, its discords cease, 



I lapse into the glad release 



Of nature's own exceeding peace. 



The next day we journeyed leisurely back, stopping to 

 get a few pictures at Carratunk Falls and other places. 

 We were somewat tired to be sure when we arrived back 

 at our starting point, but a night's sleep regulated that, 

 and what a rest we had had mentally. Perhaps some 

 may fail to see where the fun comes in on such an excur- 

 sion, but for them I cannot close this paper more fitly 

 than by using once more the language of the author pre- 

 viously mentioned : 



"People inexperienced in such matters, sitting in their 

 rooms and thinking of all the poets have sung and 

 romancers written, are apt to get sadly taken in when 

 they attempt to realize their dreams. 



"They expect to enter a sylvan paradise of trout, cool 

 retreats, laughing brooks, picturesque views, balsamic 

 couches, etc.; instead of wdrich they find hunger, rain, 

 smoke, toil, gnats, mosquitoes, dirt, broken rest, vulgar 

 guides, and salt pork. But he who goes in a right spirit 

 will not be disappointed, and will find the taste of this 

 kind of life better, though bitterer, than the writers 

 have described." W. A. B. 



tiii[itl l§iziortt. 



Every person ivho is sufficiently interested in the National 

 Park to do his share toward securing protection for it, is in- 

 vited to send for one of the Forest and Stream's petition 

 blanks. They are sent free. 



RIDGWAY'S NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS.* 



IN Forest and Stream of Oct. 27, 1887, appeared a pre- 

 liminary notice of this important work, a fuller con- 

 sideration of the merits of which has been unavoidably 

 postponed until now. 



The purpose of the work cannot be better explained 

 than by quoting from the author's preface: "The object 

 of the present volume is to furnish a convenient manual 

 of North American ornithology, reduced to the smallest 

 compass, by the omission of everything that is not abso- 

 lutely necessary for determining" the character of any 

 given specimen, and including, besides the correct nomen- 

 clature of each species, a statement of its natural habitat, 

 and other concomitant data. 



"Originally projected by Professor Spencer F. Baird, 

 and based essentially upon'the grand National cabinet of 

 American birds which his energy, ability and enthusiasm 

 have developed from an unpretentious nucleus into a collec- 

 tion unrivalled in extent and wholly unique in scientific 

 value, this work may be considered as, in a measure, the 

 consummation of a plan conceived by that illustrious 

 naturalist, whose works represent the highest type of 

 systematic ornithology, and have furnished the model 

 from which the younger generation of ornithologists have 

 drawn their inspiration. * * * 



"Honored with the privilege of continuing the work com- 

 menced by abler hands, the author has endeavored to f ullfil 

 his trust with careful attention to the hope of its origina- 

 tor that the 'Manual of North American Birds' may serve 

 as a handy book for the sportsman and traveler, as well 

 as for the resident naturalist, and that all may find it a 

 convenient and satisfactory means of identifying any 

 North American bird in all its variations of plumage." 



The present work is in many respects a wide departure 

 from the lines hitherto followed in works on North 

 American ornithology, for it covers vastly more ground, 

 including in the synopses all Mexican, Cuban and 

 Bahaman species of each North American genus, and 

 also, in the keys to the genera, additional Mexican forms. 

 Practically, therefore, the work includes all known forms 

 known to North America north of about the tenth 

 parallel of north latitude. Besides this, in the case of the 

 order Tubinares, which consists "wholly of species in- 

 habiting the high seas, whose more or less erratic or 

 fortuitous wanderings render them especially liable to a 

 place in the list of 'accidental visitors' to any sea-girt 

 country," all species belonging to genera which have 

 been taken in North American waters, are included in 

 this work. There is, however, no difficulty in distinguish- 

 ing the species which are North American in the sense 

 in which the term is used in the A. 0. U. Check 'List from 

 those which are extra-limital, the latter being printed in 

 smaller type and being without a number. The classifi- 

 cation and nomenclature correspond closely with the 

 Check List, but of course such species as have been 

 described since the publication of that work are inserted 

 in their proper place. The work rthus includes 773 species 

 which are technically North American, while the total 

 number described is 1,028. 



The plan of the work has been to attain with the great- 

 est degree of completeness the utmost conciseness possi- 

 ble. There is thus no repetition whatever. At the be- 



*A | Manual | of | North American Birds. | by | Robert Ridgway. 

 , — | illustrat ed by 104 outline drawings of the | generic charac- 

 ters. | — | Philadelphia: { J. B. Lippiucott Company. 1 1887. I 



ginning the book is a "Key to the Higher Groups," the J 

 seventeen orders in which our birds are placed. The < 

 student with a bird in his hand is referred at once to the ' 

 group in which it is to be found. Under the ordinal 

 headings is an artificial key to each family, and under 

 the family headings a key to each genus. Under each 

 genus are stated the characteristics common to all the 

 species belonging to it, and then the specific characters 

 follow under the several names. The whole is put briefly 

 and concisely, but — if one uses the keys intelligently and 

 carefully — with great clearness. A number of changes 

 of nomenclature from that employed in the Check List 

 have been made. Four new subgenera and thirty -nine ' 

 new species and subspecies are described, fourteen of 

 the latter being from North America and defined in the I 

 Check List. Two of the species included in the Check 

 List are canceled. Thirty-one species and subspecies 

 are admitted as North American, which were 

 not included in the Check List, and twelve of the 

 names used in that work have for various 

 reasons been changed. These are JEstrelata scalaris, 

 formerly JE. gularis; Som.ateria mollissima borealw. for- 

 merly S. mollissima; Ardea mfescens, in Check List A. 

 rufa. The subgenera Ny ether odius, Rliyacophilus and 

 Ulula become respectively Nyctinassa, Heloaromas and 

 Scotiaptex, Dryobates scalaris is changed to D. s. bairdi; 

 D. stricldandi to D. arizonce; Molothrus ceneus has 

 become Callothrus robustus; Pinicola enucleator, P. e. 

 canadensis; Carpodacus frontalis is now C. mexicanus 

 frontalis. The genus Certhiola is replaced by Ccereba, 

 the subgenus Oporornis has its limits extended, and 

 Baird instead of Swainson is given as the authority for 

 the name Sialia sialis azurea. 



The outline drawings of bills, wings and feet, which 

 number nearly 500 and fill 124 plates, are a very important 

 part of this valuable work, and cannot fail to be of the 

 utmost assistance to every student. The whole work 

 with its 650 pages of text and its abundant illustrations iSi 

 a most important one. It represents the sum of our 

 knowledge of North American birds up to the last half of 

 1887, and that knowledge brought together and set in 

 order by Mr. Ridgway, than whom none is better fitted 

 to speak with authority of our birds. It has been well 

 said that this work must long reflect honor on its author. 



A LITTLE GIRL ON SPARROWS. 



I WAS much interested in the English sparrow discus- 

 sion in the Audubon Magazine for February, and as 

 we have a great many sparrows here at Ivystone. I 

 thought I would like to tell what we children have found 

 out about them. We call our home Ivystone, because 

 we have ivy growing over one side and one end of the 

 house. This ivy is infested with English sparrows, ' 

 and has been for years. It is no wonder though, for 

 they have three or four broods in a season, and four or 

 five young at a time. 



In Miss LydiaVery's letter she said "that the sparrows 

 ate the caterpillars, and that they seldom see one now," 

 but at our house it is very different. We have hundreds 

 of sparrows, and thousands of caterpillars every year, and 

 last year we had more caterpillars than ever before. 

 The porch had a great many on it all the time, and with- 

 in ten feet of the sparrows, but they don't care a bit. 

 After a while the caterpillars became so thick, that my I 

 sister (who dislikes caterpillars exceedingly) said she 

 would give us a cent for every twenty-five we killed, and 

 a cousin of mine earned nearly $2.00 in a very short 

 time, and the rest of us considerable, though not as 

 much. It was not from the lack of caterpillars, but 

 rather from the lack of perseverance. Moreover, we 

 have never seen a sparrow with a worm in its bill, so 

 that I fully agree with General Spinner, " that the spar- 

 row is a granivorous bird." The sparrows do drive away 

 our birds, for since the sparrows have taken possession of 

 our ivy, we have not had any wens or bluebirds to 

 build around the lawn, but they go out into the orchard 

 where the sparrows do not molest them so much. In one 

 case that I knew of, some wrens built in a box that had 

 been made for them, but the sparrows drove them away. 



Perhaps the persons who are not friends of the spar- 

 row, and would like to get rid of him, can do it in this 

 way:. Make a dough of cornmeal, and feed it to them un- 

 til they are used to it, and then put in sugar of lead; one 

 ounce to a quart of dough. After the birds have eaten 

 it, they will fly away and never come back, or, if they do 

 you might put out some more poison, and that will most 

 likely send them away forever. 



Though I am only a little girl eleven years of age, and 

 do not know as much about this subject as older persons, 

 yet I am very much interested . in natural history, and 

 much enjoy your magazine, and thought perhaps it 

 would do forme to write a little, though I do not know 

 that it will be published. Susie J. Allen. 

 March 14. 



AS TO MOOSE AND CARIBOU. 



FREDERICTON, N. B., Feb. 27.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: The valuable article on the American 

 Cervidce. by R. W. Shuf eldt, which appears in your issue 

 of Feb. 23 is a fund of information. Nevertheless, his 

 experience with regard to the moose and caribou is evi- 

 dently not equal to that of the western elk, blacktail, etc. 

 I feel as certain as I can feel about anything that the 

 reindeer of Norway (R. tarandus) and the barren ground 

 caribou are identical, and differ from the woodland cari- 

 bou. The weight, antlers and habits of the reindeer and 

 barren ground caribou agree exactly, and I have had ex- 

 cellent opportunities for judging. 



Dr. Shuf eldt states that the female moose "bears but 

 one fawn," whereas she invariably drops two, or (unfre- 

 quently) more. Their rutting season is September and 

 early part of October in the provinces and on the Ottawa. 

 The young are dropped early in May, and I should say 

 they are carried about eight and a half months. Caton, 

 if I remember aright (I have not his work by me), dis- 

 tinguishes between the antlers of the European elk and 

 the American moose, claiming that those of the European 

 animal are set with the palmation facing upward, and in 

 the American forward, but my investigations lead me to 

 believe that this is not an invariable rule, and certainly 

 all the heads that I have studied from Manitoba and the 

 Northwest face upward like those of the European animal. 



I should not have ventured to criticise Mr. Shui'eklt's 

 article had it not been for the desire expressed in the 

 latter portion of it, viz., to hear from practical men on 

 any new or doubtful points. CHAS. A. BRAMBLE. 



