April 2ft, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



269 



Rhodes, he often heard the notes of small birds, without | 

 being able to see them: but on one occasion he observed ' 

 a party of storks just as they alighted, and saw several 

 small birds come oft* their backs, having been thus 

 evidently transported by them across the sea.' 



"In the face of such testimony, then, as that above 

 mentioned, and the admission of his belief in the story by 

 so experienced an ornithologist as Heuglin, the conclu- 

 sion seems inevitable that there must be some truth in it, 

 and it has received some confirmation from a singular 

 observation since made in England. Mr. T. H. Nelson, 

 of Redcar, writing to the Zoologist for February, 1882 (p. 

 73), reports an occurrence related to him by an eye wit- 

 ness, Mr. Wilson, the foreman on the South Gare Break- 

 water, at the mouth of the Tees, which bears directly on 

 the cptestion at issue. 



"On the morning of Oct. 16, fine and cold, wind north- 

 erly, Wilson was at the end of the Gare, when he saw a 

 'woodcock owl' (short-eared owl) 'come flopping across 

 the sea.' As it came nearer he saw something between 

 its shoulders, and w ondered what it could be. The owl 

 came and lit on the gearing within 10yds. of where he 

 was standing, and directly it came down a little bird 

 dropped off its back and flew along the Gare. He sig- 

 nalled for a gun, but the owl saw him move, and flew off. 

 He followed the small bird, however, and secured it, and 

 on taking it to the local bird-stuffer for preservation, 

 learned that it was a golden-crested wren. To see its 

 irregular, and apparently weak, flight in passing through 

 the air on a stormy day, it would never be supposed that 

 so tiny a creature as the golden-crested wren would 

 attempt to cross the sea, or would succeed in doing so if 

 it tried. But that it travels to and from the Continent in 

 spring and autumn is a fact which has been well ascer- 

 tained by many competent observers. On the coasts of 

 Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, says Mr. Cordeaux, the 

 autumnal migration of the gold-crest is as well known as 

 that of the woodcock, and from its usually arriving just 

 before that species, it is known as the -woodcock pilot,' 

 The North Sea fishermen assert that these little birds often 

 alight on then- boats, and in foggy weather perish by 

 hundreds. The same thing has been observed by Mr. E. 

 T. Booth off the coast of Norfolk. There is, them nothing 

 so improbable as might at first sight appear in a gold-crest 

 crossing the North Sea and alighting tired on the broad 

 platform afforded by the expansive back and wings of a 

 short-eared owl traveling at slower speed beneath it. At 

 any rate, the fact remains that the gold-crest was seen to 

 descend from the owl's back when the latter alighted, 

 and its identity w r as placed beyond doubt by its subse- 

 quent capture. There is, verily, in heaven and earth 

 much that is still undreamed of in our philosophy. 



"J. E . Harting." 



POST-NUPTIAL MIGRATION. 



SOME of your correspondents, and those who are 

 looked up to as authority , seem to ridicule the idea 

 of the separation of the mallard drake from the duck 

 during the season that she is caring for the young brood. 

 My observations have resulted in a belief that they sepa- 

 rate, in some climates at least, the males going further 

 north when the chosen resting place is not in a cold lati- 

 tude. My knowledge of natural history and scientific 

 terms is limited. I have no Latin names to spread on 

 this page in showy italics, but the time I should have de- 

 voted to boous was spent in communion with nature and 

 in the study of the habits of beasts and birds. So, when 

 I tell you why I believe what I assert, you may draw 

 your own conclusions. 



When a boy of twelve years I lived upon the shores of 

 a lake that was the home of all kinds of ducks in winter, 

 and its border was the nesting ground of the mallard. 

 So numerous were the nests of this variety of ducks that 

 I gathered forty dozen eggs at one time and shipped them 

 to market. I shipped them by an ox team, as that slow 

 and uncertain means of transportation was the best 

 afforded at that stage of the country's civilization. I 

 committed that crime but once, however, partly for the 

 reason that the remuneration was small, and partly be- 

 cause the incipient honor of the sportsman began to 

 develop about that time. I had become owner of a three- 

 dollar smgle-barreled niuzzleloader, and in fact the two 

 dollars netted from the egg transaction was invested in 

 that gun. I began to shoot ducks, or rather drakes. 



One week later incubation was fairly under way, and 

 I frightened ducks from feather-lined nests wherever I 

 walked. How they limped and flapped before me! But 

 imagine my surprise when I discovered not one drake or 

 greenhead on the lake. At some time in the day the 

 ducks would swim about, and then- quack, quack was 

 heard as usual, but the flat bass of the drake was heard 

 no more. His green head could not be seen, nor could 

 his distinguishing voice be heard. In short, the drake of 

 the mallard species was conspicuous by his absence. I 

 have noticed the same animal disappear many times 

 since. When the female takes permanently to setting, 

 they go. 



The same trait of character is observed in one of the 

 many species of the grouse. I am not able to distinguish 

 the family by its Latin name. It is a blue grouse and a 

 mountain grouse, but even my limited hunting ground 

 is the home of three varieties of blue grouse* Well, this 

 species hibernates in the pine forests some 4,000ft. above 

 the sea. He leaves his cold gloomy forest shade in the 

 spring with his chosen mate, and helps her find a place 

 to deposit her eggs in the grass of some rocky canon 

 where there is a little water trickling over the boulders 

 in the shade of servia bushes or haw trees in reach below. 

 While the female hovers the eggs, in constant danger of 

 coyotes, lynx and foxes, the proud old cock goes back to 

 seclusion and safety, and sits night and day in the solemn 

 murmuring pines. When the downy brood of a dozen 

 comes forth, the mother still guards them from dangers 

 and shelters them from storms without the help of the 

 lazy mate. Before the brood was large enough to fry I 

 have been without meat, and have hunted for the male 

 grouse, preferring to go hungry rather than murder the 

 mother, but never could find him. That caused me to 

 investigate and study his habits, with the result that I 

 discovered them to be as set forth above, and I have 

 demonstrated the facts, in many ways in later years. 

 Our prairie chicken, the English of whose name is the 

 meadow grouse of the Columbia, has the same habit to 

 the extent that whole flocks of males retire bo places of 

 safety and seclusion, and remain very quiet during the 

 season of incubation and while the young ones are too 

 small to fly. 



The moose, elk and deer have a. season of sulky moodi- 

 ness or unsociability. The time in which the males of these 

 animals do not offer protection to the female is in the 

 early winter. Where is the hunter who lias not seen 

 from two up to a herd of bucks go bounding away with- 

 out a doe among them? The grandest sight I ever wit- 

 nessed was a migrating drove of buck elks on the lava 

 plains of Idaho crowding down from the deep snow, with 

 great antlers glistening in the sun above every head. I 

 counted over 200 and not a doe among them. 



Roxey Newton. 



Boise City, Idaho. 



BIRD NOTES FROM CANADA. 



Editor 1 Forest and Stream: 



Old King Hiems having released his grasp, the spring 

 wave of bird life has set in, though the snow still covers 

 the ground. I saw yesterday, about 3 P. M., on looking 

 down from Dufferin Terrace, an immense flock of white 

 geese winging their flight, in spite of the northeaster 

 then ruffling the St. Lawrence, toward the marshy flats 

 of St. Joachim, known to gunners as lea Bailures Plates: 

 from thence these hardy tourists, probably fresh from the 

 Bahamas or bayous of Florida, cross over daily to the 

 Dune at Crane Island, occasionally prolonging their out- 

 ing as far as Seal Rocks— Battu res aux Loups-Marins — 

 opposite St. Roche des Aulnaies. The outardes or Can- 

 ada geese made their appearance on these famed feeding 

 grounds at the end of March. Goose Island, Kamouraska. 

 Isle Verte and Rimouski are also favorite resorts for 

 outardes in spring and fall. The markets are well sup- 

 plied. 



Several of out spring birds put in an appearance this 

 week only, such as the robin, Wilson's snowbird, the 

 song sparrow and the purple finch. The latter is occa- 

 sionally seen here in winter, and about the 20th of March 

 for some unaccountable reason hundreds invaded my 

 domain at Sellury, and seemed much distressed for want 

 of food, sitting on the house steps and crowding in an 

 ashpit, where the kitchen refuse is thrown in winter. 

 They were accompanied by about one hundred pine gros- 

 beaks, who devoured greedily the frozen crab apples I 

 had left last fall for their winter supply on the trees in 

 my front court. Strange to say, there was scarcely one 

 red one among them. The red ones are supposed to be 

 the old males. 



On the 25th of October last my garden for a whole week 

 was overrun with robins and hermit thrushes, busily 

 stripping some mountain ash trees of their crimson fruit. 

 The hermit thrush is a delightful songster. His metallic 

 flute-like notes are sweeter though less loud than those of 

 his European cousin, the Irish thrush. In ordinary years 

 they stop here on their fall migration, one by one. I^Tever 

 yet for the last twenty-eight years that I have been 

 located at Sellury have I witnessed such an invasion. 

 More anon. J. L. LeMoine. 



Spencer Wood, The G range, near Quebec, April 20. 



COL. PICKETT'S ENGLISH SNIPE. 



THROUGH the kindness of Major H. W. Merrill we 

 are permitted to print a portion of a letter from our 

 correspondent "P.," dated Mee-tee-tse, Wyo., Feb. 29. He 

 says: "I wrote you in the midst of that cold snap, Jan. 7. 

 The minimum for each twentv-four hours after that date 

 were as follows: — 34°,— 38^,— 11°. +24 -,+9 J ,— 40%— 46% 

 — 41°,— 33",— 8%+8°,+25 ,— 31°,— «i% and then the cold 

 appeared to let up. During the cold days there was no wind 

 to speak of. With these temperatures and a ' blizzard'— that 

 is a north wind of thirty to fifty miles an hour — no ani- 

 mal life could long stand against if exposed to it. 



"Well, my jack snipe went through it all splendidly. 

 After the cold let up and during most of the snap I saw 

 them almost daily. When the weather became warm 

 and pleasant they disappeared for more roomy quarters I 

 inferred. Since Jan. 22 we have had a most delightful 

 spell of weather; days warm and pleasant, and the snow 

 entirely disappeared, except on tho high mountain 1 ?, and 

 very little there. Having missed the jack snipe and 

 knowing they must be at some of the open springs, and 

 knowing of some of the open springs on my neighbor's 

 ranch below on Hellroaring River, one pleasant day, 

 Feb. 15, I took my .32cal. along to kill a jack rabbit, on 

 which to feed two staghound puppies that I am raising, 

 and walked down three miles to my neighbor's ranch. 

 After dinner I walked up a mile to look after my snipe. 

 On reaching the springs, scaipe, scaipe, scaipe, etc., up 

 flew six snipe, all of them giving tongue except one. 

 TheTe may have been more, for they flew up so fast that 

 I may have missed counting" one or two. If six flew up 

 from one locality there were probably more, as there 

 was more open water in Four Bear Cieek near by. 



"Although this winter has been much colder than last 

 winter, there has been no snow to speak of and a great 

 . deal more sunshine, and there have been a great many 

 more open springs. A few days ago on going up through 

 the canon of this river, at an open spring branch I saw 

 a water wren that, with the jack snipe, should have 

 been on the Gulf. On Feb. 15 I saw a pair of mallard 

 ducks that had evidently wintered near." 



A RAINBOW BY MOONLIGHT. 



IT was on the 16th of .October, 1886, that, rising at an 

 unusually early hour (about 4 o'clock), as a member 

 of the family wished to make an early start to a neigh- 

 boring city, I chanced to glance out of the open door- 

 way, when I beheld a scene which held me spellbound 

 with wonder and admiration, and which will remain in- 

 delibly stamped upon my memory so long as memory 

 lasts. 



The splendid harvest moon, with its attendant stars, 

 was slowly descending toward the western horizon; dark 

 clouds filled the eastern sky, from which a bright mist 

 was falling, while over the shimmering river, and tower- 

 ing high above the dark wooded hills, till its apex rested 

 among and illuminated the very clouds above, a magnifi- 

 cent arch had been erected — a rainbow, clear and dis- 

 tinct, yet with colors infinitely more soft and beautiful 

 than any seen by the light of day. 



The entrancing beauty of the scene held me spell- 

 bound, as it were, till at length realizing that I was selfish 

 in my enjoyment, I aroused the sleeping household, that 

 they might witness a scene the weird splendor of which 

 it is impossible to describe, and which I cannot hope to 

 ever see again. Violet S. Williams. 



An Indian Prayer.— In the April number of the 

 Avierican Anthropologist Dr. Washington Matthews 

 gives us the prayer of a Navajo Shaman, or Medicine 

 Man. This contribution to our knowledge of aboriginal 

 faith is a most interesting one, especially because it bears 

 internal evidence of its purely heathen origin, for too 

 many of the so-called religious myths of the North Amer- 

 ican Indians are mixed up with Christian teachings, and 

 so corrupted that but little reliance can be placed on them. 

 This prayer, which Dr. Matthews's informant stated to 

 be the most potent prayer he knew, is very long, but is so 

 full of iterations that it contains only about one hundred 

 Navajo words. A glossary of these accompanies the 

 paper, which is of extreme interest. 



'mm mid (§mf. 



REMOVAL. 



The offices of Forest and Stream are now at No. 318 Broadway. 



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. 



MAINE LARGE GAME. 



MOOSE and deer in Maine (with the exception of Aroo- 

 stook county) have wintered well, and fewer have 

 been killed than in the five years past. Notwithstanding 

 the numerous reports of great slaughter, when we come 

 to investigate most of them prove to be unfounded, ex- 

 cept as mentioned above. These reports are circulated 

 by those unfavorable to the law, who wish to make it 

 appear that the laws are not enforced and of no benefit. 



The fact is, there are more deer in Maine to-day than 

 there has been at any time for fifty years past. Moose 

 are scarce, but are increasing. Deer are very plenty at 

 this place, where I live. Five years ago they were un- 

 heard of. In the Rangeleys the laws have been well 

 observed. People there have learned to know that a live 

 deer is worth more to them than a dead one. Some deer 

 and one moose have been taken alive, mostly by parties 

 who thought they had a right to do so. They have been 

 turned loose, or will be as soon as the snow settles, so it 

 will be safe to let them go. The moose is now at Eustis, 

 but will be liberated at the proper time. 



In Aroostook county considerable poaching has been 

 carried on near the border. Owing to its remoteness, 

 difficulty of access and want of means we have not been 

 able to protect that locality as it deserves. We have sent 

 two of our wardens down there, who have just returned. 

 They seized thirteen moose hides and got evidence against 

 fourteen parties, who will be prosecuted at once. 



On the whole, the outlook for fish and game in Maine 

 looks well. All we require is an appropriation sufficient 

 to stock her waters and protect her forests, which I think 

 the next Legislature will give us. Henry O. Stanley. 

 Dixjfiedd, Me., April 14. 



BRANT SHOOTING ON LONG ISLAND. 



THREE of our fowlers have just returned from a brief 

 visit to the south side of Gardiner's Island, where 

 they enjoyed good sport. They killed fiftv-two brant 

 and several black duck and shelldrakes. 'indeed the 

 sport there was better than we have usually found it at 

 Montauk, some ten miles distint. 



Perhaps the noblest fowl and the one that affords the 

 best sport along our coast is the brant. It does not pass 

 into fresh bays or brackish rivers, but confines itself 

 to the seaboard and to strictly salt Avaters, where it 

 gathers its food. 



In early November it makes its appearance in the south 

 bays of Long Island and is there at times killed in con- 

 siderable numbers. We are not aware that it frequents 

 Long Island Sound, or is very abundant at Montauk. In 

 many year9 of coot shooting on the New England coast 

 we have not met with it and conclude that it passes wide 

 out to sea in its migrations and first falls in with the land 

 on the south side of Long Isia,nd and there stops for rest 

 and food. They are shy of passing over a point of 

 meadow, so that the battery gunner, concealed in his 

 box far out on the waters, surrounded by his decoys, has 

 great advantage over the fowler who shoots from some 

 point of the shore. It is a bird that easily falls to shot 

 an A does not escape by diving. It feeds only on bars at low 

 tide, its chief food being a green-leaved plant called the 

 sea cabbage, but it also feeds on the long ribbons of sea- 

 weed 



ine first flocks that arrive remain but a few days, and 

 then, collected in large flocks, they rise high in air, and 

 after describing some wide aerial circuits, they strike out 

 in a direct course over the sea. avoiding all projecting 

 points of the coast, and traveling night and day. They 

 are soon succeeded by other flocks, many of which remain 

 with us until the severe weather of late December com- 

 pels them to a Southern flight. Yet the coot, old squaw, 

 shelldrake and whistlers seem to have been here 

 through all the past severe weather, and have been killed 

 in our bays in great numbers among the ice openings, 

 where the ice itself had formed to the depth of 6 or Sin. 



There are several good points on the coast for brant 

 shooting, but perhaps the best one is at Cobb's Island, on 

 the Virginia coast, some dozen miles north of Cape 

 Charles. Mr. Cobb was an old Cape Cod gunner and 

 fisher, who chanced years ago, before the war, to hit 

 upon the little sandy island which now bears his name, 

 and finding it to be an excellent spot for fowling, pur- 

 chased it for the small sum of $100. He has since greatly 

 improved the place, putting up large buildings for accom- 

 modation of city fo wlers. Great numbers of bog snipe 

 and of brant and black duck are killed there. We have 

 had rare sport in fishing and shooting in and around the 

 broad waters that he between the island and the main- 

 land, living only at the latter place. 



Brant resort in good numbers to Shinnecock and South 

 bays of Long Island, and in the southeast, deep salt 

 waters of Jersey; but we have seldom seen them in 

 Barnegat Bay, the water heing too brackish to suit them. 



The breeding place of the brant is far in the north, and 

 they are said to be common in Hudson's Bay. Ihey there 

 breed in thick, inaccessible swamps, like the geese, where 

 they are beyond reach of the guns of the white man and 

 the Indian shooter. Isaac McLellan. 



Greenport, L. L. 



