March 29, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



188 



THE AMERICAN SKYLARK. 



ONE day during the early part of last spring, while 

 noting the early arrivals, I was agreeably surprised 

 to find my old friends the skylarks flourishing in in- 

 creased numbers. 



My acquaintance with this superb alien songster dates 

 from the spring of 1880. Looking over my note book, I 

 find that I first recognized this bird as the skylark on 

 March 30, 1885. The spring previous I had seen a num- 

 ber, at different times, poised high up in the air, flood- 

 ing the earth beneath with their incomparable notes; but 

 the authors puzzled me for a long time. The bobolink 

 never gets as far north as this by the first of April, nor 

 do they sing when hovering 500yds. above the ground. 

 Surely'tbe shore lark could not sing with such untiring 

 energy. I was perfectly satisfied that it was neither of 

 these birds, and found myself at a loss for even a sup- 

 position when their identity was in question. 



Une quiet day during the year 1885, 1 saw several hov- 

 ering over a field, and determined, if possible, to settle, 

 the question. Watching one of them until finished with 

 his song. I saw him gradually drop lower and lower, 

 until when within about 60ft. of the ground he fell as if 

 shot, catching himself two or three feet above the field 

 and sailing off a little distance and alighting. Crawling 

 and sneaking along a hedge brought me within 20ft. of 

 the little Orpheus, and with feelings peculiar to enthusi- 

 astic ornithologists, I recognized the European skylark. 

 So close was I to the little beauty that the bright glitter 

 of his little black eyes, the nervous play of the dark crest 

 and the long, characteristic hind toe" were plainly dis- 

 cernible. 



Here was a novelty in the bird line within a few miles 

 of the city of Brooklyn, and on every opportunity I had 

 during the succee ing seasons I watched with increasing 

 interest their progress toward a secure foothold among 

 the birds of the United States. Judging from last spring's 

 observations, there seems to be no question as to their 

 future existence. They seem to be multiplying rapidly, 

 and if the insatiable brutes, with their cast-iron guns, 

 will but spare our humble-coated and glorious warbler, 

 his career is assured, and a numerous progeny will usher 

 in the return of warmth and sunshine, and delight the 

 Btudent of nature by his penetrating, sweet notes in all 

 the Northeastern States. 



The extent to which they have already acclimated 

 themselves, and even the mere fact of their existence, is 

 almost unknown. A few fanners to whom I pointed out 

 the bird soaring far above, admitted the bird was abun- 

 dant, but called tbem bobolinks, or sparrows, none of 

 them knowing it as the skylark. 



If any other brother ornithologists have observed him, 

 let us hear about it. E. I. B. 



[The history of the introduction of European skylarks 

 on Long Island has been fully told in back numbers of 

 Forest and Stream, but it is some time since we have 

 had a recent report on them, and our correspondent's 

 observations are very interesting.] 



A WOLF'S CRIME. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In some late letters to Forest and Stream I presented 

 the wolf as on the whole a pretty good sort of a creature, 

 and by no means as bad as popular fancy paints him. 

 But he is sometimes very bad. One of my young country 

 friends has a bitch hound which is quite' famous for her 

 excellence as a deer hunter. This bitch lately brought 

 forth a litter of pups, and almost every man in the 

 vicinity was eager to own one or more of them . One night 

 while my friend was away from borne, and no one in the 

 house but his wife and little ones, a wolf visited the prem- 

 ises and immediately went to the bitch's bed. A furi- 

 ous fight ensued. The bitch was badly whipped and 

 driven away. The wolf then killed every puppy by 

 crushing its head ; which having done he left. The poor 

 bitch was found the next morning more dead than alive, 

 but careful nursing has set her on her feet again. I 

 never heard of a wolf committing such an act as this be- 

 fore, and it is quite unaccountable. It appears that he 

 was wholly possessed by the devil; a most villainous 

 and heartless wretch. But we have heard of men just 

 as bad as this wolf. 



I speak of this wolf as a he, but do not know the fact. 

 If a he, I dare say he was one of those unfortunate ones 

 who had not succeeded in securing a female mate of his 

 own race; for at the time of committing this atrocious 

 act, the wolf's season of mating was in full blast and 

 nearing an end. Having failed among his own race, 

 perhaps he thought to secure this bitch/and finding her 

 already supplied with a young family, he may "have 

 argued that if he should kill these, the disconsolate 

 mother might be willing to accept Ids companionship in 

 building up another family. But then I don't know. 

 Let everyone ponder for himself. 



" 1 shall be much in the woods this spring and summer, 

 and have hope that I may catch a few young wolves and 

 train them up under my own eye. N. A. T. 



Albany, Tex., March 13. 



Movements op the Birds.— Perth Amboy, N. J. , March 

 23. — On the 20th inst. I saw hundreds of robins in 

 one flock, flying southwest. To-day the mercury is at 

 18*. Yesterday I observed crow blackbirds (grackles) 

 for the first time, also a flycatcher, and several blue- 

 birds, warbling in spring style. A letter received from 

 Ohadwick's reports a good flight of ducks, and in another 

 from Petersburg the writer speaks of having seen several 

 English snipe. — J. L. K, 



Better Late than Never. — The well-know Norwegian 

 naturalists, M, Michelel and Dr. Bahrt, have introduced 

 a bill into the Storthing prohibiting the killing of any 

 birds (except birds of prey, ravens, rooks, and magpies) 

 in the whole of Norway during the period April 1 to 

 August 15, also the taking of eggs or young birds. The 

 chief object of this bill is to put a stop to the present 

 wanton destruction of birds by foreign "sportsmen." 



A Blue Heron on Mid-Ocean.— In August of last 

 year while crossing the Atlantic from New York to Glas- 

 gow in the Anchor Line S. S. Furnessia I was surprised 

 to see a blue heron following the steamer when about 

 half way across. We were passing through light rifts of 

 fog when my attention was directed to the object of 



attack by numerous seagulls, which to judge by their re- 

 ception of it considered the heron an unwelcome visitor. 

 Sometimes the bird would be in front and sometimes in 

 rear of the vessel when in the fog, and often crossed the 

 decks not higher than the masts, evidently intent on fol- 

 lowing in close quarters, and probably wonderiug if he 

 could "steal a ride." We watched the bird anxiously for 

 a couple of hours, and wondered whether the yard arms 

 would prove to bo a resting place for him when night 

 came, but on passing through a dense bank of fog the fog 

 horn alarm had to be sounded, much to our disappoint- 

 ment and that of the bird, for he was very near the 

 coveted resting place. At the alarm he turned and dis- 

 appeared. When we cleared the fog in the course of 

 half an hour, nothing was to be seen of it. I would like 

 to know from some of your naturalist readers whether 

 these clumsy birds usually go so far from the shore, or if 

 they cross and recross the Atlantic at pleasure. Capt. 

 Heatherwiek, of the S. S. Furnessia, will, I have no 

 doubt, bear me out in the above, as he was very much 

 interested, and said he had never seen one so far out at 

 sea, probably not less than six hundred miles from 

 nearest land.— Mac. 



An Albino Huffed Grouse. — Kingston, N. Y., March 

 22, 1888. — Editor Forest and Stream : During the last week 

 in December, 1887, a friend residing on the line of the Ulster 

 and Delaware Railroad, while out gunning, saw a small 

 covey of partridge get up, and among them was a pure 

 white bird, which he singled out and brought down. It 

 proved to be a pure white partridge, a female. This same 

 bird had been seen by other hunters during last fall, but 

 they had failed to get an opportunity of bringing it to 

 bag. I have learned since that this white partridge is 

 the second one of its kind that has been killed in the 

 same cover during the past two years. I personally in- 

 spected the bird, after it had been set up and placed on 

 exhibition in a show window, on the main thorough- 

 fare, in this city. It was a beautiful bird. In shape and 

 size it did notVliffer from an ordinary partridge. The 

 plumage was a soft white, with slightly pinkish hue. 

 The beautiful borders on the tail feathers were clearly 

 defined by a deeper pinkish cast, differing only in this 

 respect from the rest of the plumage. Will some of your 

 readers please give some explanation of this phenomenon 

 and inform us whether it is a common occurrence or a 

 rarity. This is the first white partridge I have seen in 

 this county (Ulster) in twenty years' hunting. — D, C. 

 Overbaugh. [White ruffed grouse are very rare and 

 are only seen at long intervals. They are albinos.] 



A Mink far from Water.— Verdon, Dakota, March 5. 

 —Editor Forest and Stream: I have been surprised to 

 find how far a mink will range away from water. I 

 had a tame wild goose and one morning it was found dead 

 with its head eaten off. My bird dog was put on the 

 track at the goose pen and followed it to a hole under 

 the house, where in the cellar the dim light showed 

 what I thought to be a cat, which I shot with a revolver, 

 but which proved to be a mink, the largest one I ever 

 «aw. This was a surprise, as the nearest water is 

 eighteen miles distant, and I never knew that mink 

 strayed so far from it. — J. L. RoONEY. 



\nmt §ng nni §tmf . 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Pub. Co. 



Every person who 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. 



THE GROUSE AND THE SQUIRRELS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



It is the same old story that has been told over and over 

 so many times, but every time it is told it has something- 

 new and interesting, even though it be the same. Our 

 friend Jack — who is so well known to the readers of 

 Forest and Stream from former articles as to need no 

 introduction — called on me one evening and wished to 

 inquire if everything was ready for the short vacation 

 trip to New Hampshire which had been talked of so long. 

 Of course things were ready and had been for two weeks 

 or more. The guns and ammunition, together with otu- 

 "duffle," were packed for the express man to load in his 

 wagon at a moment's notice, and as for ourselves we 

 were more than ready, for it seemed as though the first 

 of October would never come. After a long summer of 

 close attention to business in the hot dusty city, where 

 little but brick and stone could be seen, we were to go to 

 the wiid woods once more to get a new lease of life and 

 health. 



Morning came at last, and we boarded the train and 

 arrived at our destination without incident worthy of 

 mention. Uncle John, who is also an old acquaintance 

 of Forest and Stream readers, was there at the depot 

 with old Billy and the express wagon to take our trunks 

 up to the old farmhouse, seven miles from the railroad, 

 where shooters from city and town seldom went. After 

 a hearty meal of good wholesome farmer's fare, Uncle 

 John said he would go with us a little way, and show us 

 where the "flocks" of grouse were that had not been 

 broken up and scattered by the few market hunters 

 which sometimes happened that way. Jack and the 

 writer with our 10-ga,uge breechloaders and Uncle John 

 with a stout cane in his hand — to defend himself against 

 a fall, as he put it— took up the line of march for the 

 "pond lot," where grouse were sure to be found in the 

 spruce woods on the sidehill, or in the alders near the 

 pond in the swamp. There was one small, insignificant 

 being, however, that was in the party that it would not 

 be best to pass by without mention, and that was Jim, a 

 little dog about as large as a small fox and about the 

 color of one. I think his breed is a cross between a hun- 

 ter and a finder with a much larger percentage of the 

 latter, for we had been in the old cart path in the woods 

 but a very short time before he began to show "signs" of 

 game of some kind, and then a few short, sharp squeaks 

 from him and up went an old cock partridge that took a 

 bee line down the cart road, straight away, as pretty a ' 



shot as ever a sportsman saw, and with plain sailing, too, 

 no brush or anything else to obstruct the view. As I was 

 ahead of Jack, of course I came "in battery," unlimbered 

 the old 10-bore, and gave him first the r-ightand then the 

 left barrels at about 20 and 80yds. respectively. And 

 now I want you to please come a'little nearer and let me 

 whisper in your ear, for I don't want the whole world to 

 know about it. I will make a full confession and tell 

 you the truth, if you promise not to tell, I missed that 

 bird slick and clean with both barrels, and the worst of 

 it was that when the bird was 50yds. or more away, Jack 

 put in that full choked left of ' his— loaded with No. 5 

 chilled shot— and killed that partridge as dead as a 

 stone. 



"By gosh!" exclaimed Uncle John, "why didn't you 

 wait till he got to the Vermont line, and then shoot at 

 him? That is the all-firedest shooting gun I ever saw." 

 Jack was happy. He had a good start, and I knew that 

 we should have a good time the rest of the trip. As for 

 myself, I felt ashamed of such shooting, and tried to draw 

 some consolation from the fact that I was out of practice, 

 that I was growing old and clumsy, etc., but no; it was 

 a miss, and the worst kind of one, and so it dropped. We 

 had hardly time to gather in the bird before Jim had a 

 gray squirrel treed, and as the plump little fellow looked 

 down at the dog to see what all the fuss was about, Jack 

 hardened his heart and brought him down. Then such a 

 stroll as we had along the old road, and when we came 

 out into the pasture where the chestnut trees were we 

 found them almost alive with red squirrels, and Jack said 

 that after wo came up there with our rifles there would 

 be less of them. 



With the maple trees in all colors, the apple trees 

 loaded with fruit, the old shell-bark hickory full of nuts, 

 and the grapevines loaded with grapes, who could sup- 

 X)ose that grouse and squirrels might not thrive if they 

 were not bunted too much. Uncle John was in good, 

 spirits, and as the sun was getting low, we took up our 

 march down the other side of the pond toward the house. 



"We will go down the south side of the pond," said 

 Uncle J., "but you need not look for any more birds, as 

 they never come down this side of the pond, for the very 

 reason that" — ivhirr, whirr, whirr went the grouse from 

 almost under our feet, and both barrels of the writer's 

 gun went off — whether accidentally or not I cannot say- 

 but be it as it may, two grouse were beating the tattoo of 

 death with the wings that a moment before were bearing 

 them so swiftly away toward life and safety. 



If Uncle John was excited when the first bird fell, he 

 w T as f aniy wild now, and first his cane and then bis hat 

 he threw in the air, and said that he had not felt so good 

 before for "forty year," since he used to hunt moose 

 "down in Maine." As the old gentleman is 74 years old, 

 it shows that the true sportsman never wearies of the rod 

 and gun, however aged he may be. "By the way," Jack 

 inquired, after Uncle John had calmed down a little, 

 "will you please finish your sentence so rudely inter- 

 rupted by R., and tell us why it is that the partridges 

 never come on the south side of the pond?" 



"Well," said he, "they don't usually, but they knew 

 you city chaps were coming, and so came over to get in 

 a place of safety." 



After a hearty supper that made us both ashamed of 

 our ravenous appeti.es, the pipes were filled and refilled, 

 and then, as we lay on Uncle John's "best room" bed, 

 our eyes closed to dream of the morrow, the rifles and 

 the squirrels. Iron Ramrod. 



Somervixle, Mass. 



ONTARIO GAME LAWS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Herewith I forward a note from the Toronto Globe con- 

 cerning recent changes in our game law : 



"The committee of the Ontario Legislature on Mr. 

 Phelp's and Mr. McAndrew's bills to regulate the killing 

 of deer met yesterday morning. A letter was read 

 from Mr. H. P. Dwight, who has hunted with hounds 

 for a quarter of a century. He tu-ged that hunting 

 with hounds should not be prohibited, as it was not 

 nearly so destructive as still-hunting, and opposed the 

 clause requiring hunters to take out a license, as one 

 that would be harsh to settlers and inoperative gener- 

 ally. Mr. D wight's idea of the proper open season is 

 from Oct. 1 to the middle of November, He was of 

 opinion that no attempt shotdd be made to collect a 

 license fee from any settler or Indian, or any sum per 

 head for deer killed, and that it should not be lawful to 

 expose or offer any deer or venison for sale after Dec. 

 7, and if it were practicable or possible to enforce the 

 provision a license fee should be paid by foreigners, and 

 it should be unlawful to export at any time. A uniform 

 bounty on wolves throughout the Province would also 

 have a good effect. Whatever act may be in force some 

 better provision should be made for its enforcement than 

 now exists. 



" The committee reported as follows : The deer killing- 

 season is to extend from Oct. 15 to Nov. 20. No one 

 person is to kill more than five deer a year ; no two per- 

 sons belonging to the same camp or party more than 

 eight deer ; no three or more persons belonging to the 

 same camp or party more than twelve. The shooting of 

 moose is absolutely prohibited until 1895, and during the 

 same period no person is to kill deer or any other game 

 unless he has resided in the Province for three months. 

 The person charged with the offence is to be compellable 

 to give evidence." 



You will be sorry to learn that our bill for the protec- 

 tion of birds has been thrown out for this year by 

 means of a shameful double-shuffle to explain which it 

 will be necessary to detail the stages of such a bill in 

 our legislature. First it is prepared by parties interested 

 and given into the charge of a member who introduces 

 it, after which it goes into committee, the Tmember in 

 charge selecting his own committee. A number of ex- 

 perts on the subject are then called up for examination 

 before the committee and the bill is remodeled and per- 

 fected, after which it must pass its second and third 

 readings in the house before it becomes law. Now one 

 of the Toronto members, Mr. John Leys, professing an 

 interest in the matter, was allowed to take charge of the 

 bill prepared by the Natural History Society. He then 

 selected a committee to suit himself — violated all his 

 promises of giving us a chance to speak— sent only for 

 our opponents, the representatives of the Gun Club, and 

 succeeded in having the whole thing thrown out. 



Toronto, Can., March 21. ERNEST E. THOMPSON. 



