•June 30, 1887.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



the English sparrow destroys considerable numbers of in- 

 jurious insects in feeding its young; but it is as univer- 

 sally acknowledged that the adults rarely, if ever, take 

 insects for their own use. while it cannot be disputed that 

 •they often, if not habitually, drive off other small birds 

 which do. 



The popular ignorance which includes all small birds 

 in one category as beneficial, cannot be too deeply de- 

 plored or too severely criticised. There is no longer any 

 excuse for the blindness wbich fails to recognize bene- 

 ficial as well as injurious insects, and injurious as well as 

 beneficiia] birds. 



Walter B. Barrows, Ass't Ornithologist. 



Unttei) States Dep't of Agriculture, June 18, 1887. 



THE AMIABLE BU LLSNAKE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



A couple of evenings ago I walked alone in a pasture 

 of some 300 acres, not far from home. The object was 

 relaxation and to consider the wild flowers and the birds. 

 Such walks are medicine to the mind and body, tending 

 to longevity. While wandering along the banks of Cat- 

 claw Creek my attention was drawn to a certain umbrag- 

 eous elm, standing partly in the water, in which a multi- 

 tude of little birds were making a great noise. They 

 were popping hither and thither, uttering cries of dis- 

 tress. I went neai\to see what was the trouble and pres- 

 ently saw a snake gliding about in the tree from limb to 

 limb with ease that was remarkable. He seemed as much 

 at home in the tree as a fish in water. He had discovered 

 a bird's nest far out on an upper limb, and was evidently 

 intending to take it. No doubt there were little babies in 

 it, for as the snake drew nearer the cries of the old birds 

 gre w very distressing. They eotdd not move their babies, 

 and saw the dread enemy approaching who was to devour 

 them before their eyes. 'Who can tell how heart-rending 

 was then- distress? Their cries had drawn to them a 

 number of friends, who could do nothing more for them 

 than join in their cries. They did not offer to attack the 

 snake; did nothing but utter piercing cries, as if they 

 hoped either to frighten him or touch his heart with pity. 

 But the snake felt neither fear nor pity. He moved 

 steadily on to devour the fat, unfledged little babies 

 before the eyes of pa-rents and friends. I determined to 

 interfere. Seizing a short club of mesquite I threw it at 

 him. He turned and looked and seemed to discover that 

 I meant business. He stopped climbing and undertook to 

 hide among the leaves the best he could, but showed no 

 intention to quit ths tree. However, a stone well-aimed 

 and thrown with much force convinced him that he must 

 seek safer quarters. I expected to see him let go 

 all hold and tumble precipitately into the water, 

 but he did not do so. On the contrary, he glided grace- 

 fully from branch to branch until he was only two or 

 three feet from the water, into which he then let himself 

 down so skillfully that he did not even get his head 

 ducked. He crossed over on the side opposite me, and 

 going a little distance in the prairie stretched himself in 

 the sun full-length, as if awaiting my departure. 



The birds were beautiful little fellows with dark yellow 

 breasts, dull red about the throat and dark dove or slate 

 on the back, a jaunty topknot and lively wagging tail, 

 which they generally carried at an angle of about 43". Be- 

 ing stripped I judge they would not be bigger than the first 

 joint of a man's thumb. When they saw the snake going 

 away they immediately hushed all their noise. Their joy 

 was probably so great they could not find utterance for it. 

 They all soon left the tree except two, who were doubtless 

 the proprietors of the nest . 



Feeling curious regarding his snakeship, I crossed over 

 to confer with him. There he was. still basking in the 

 sun, but seeing me approach he began to move . off. I 

 overtook liim and began to thresh his hinder parts with a 

 light but keen switch. This caused him to put forth hi3 

 best licks at running, which only proved him to be a poor 

 runner at his best. Seeing no escape in this way he 

 climbed into a thorny bush and gathered his folds into as 

 i close a knot as he could. I tickled his nose and lips with 

 the switch, but he did not offer to strike at it. He was 

 an inoffensive poor fellow, with a very innocent expres- 

 sion of the eye. It seemed impossible to anger hiru. 

 When I teased him most, his eyes still expressed nothing 

 'but meekness and gentleness. Finally I made him come 

 'down, and drove him about on the prairie a considerable 

 time, in any way that I would, just as one would drive a 

 horse in a cart. Still his meekness of temper remained 

 unruffled. I undertook to drive him into some prairie 

 dog holes, but he would not enter them, seeming to prefer 

 to take his chances with my switch rather than with such 

 •creatures as he might perchance find in the holes. At 

 last I told him he might go, and he went. My purpose 

 was to kill him when I crossed the creek, being exasper- 

 ated by his evident intention to devour the little birds; 

 but having thus practiced with him, and found him such 

 a model of meekness and patience, I could not have the 

 heart to do so. 



He was what we call the bullsnake in this country, and 

 is the largest snake we have. I have measured one that 

 was 7ft. Sin. long and there is no doubt they grow much 

 longer thau that. Their general color and markings are 

 much like a rattlesnake's, save that the black markings 

 do not take the diamond shape. They are non-veuomous 

 of course. They have an evil reputation here, as it is 

 said they will invade the poultry yard at night and eat 

 whole basketfuls of eggs. They will take the eggs from 

 under a sitting hen so deftly she will never be aware of 

 what is going on and so not squeal out and give the alarm. 

 At least" so they say of the bull. I have often had my 

 eggs missing, and the bull gets the credit of it on all 

 hands, but I cannot say whether rightly or not. On the 

 other hand he is so amiable 1 think he could be trained to 

 be a pleasant and useful companion about the house. 

 They say he sometimes makes a low roaring noise like a 

 bull, but I never heard it. What is his name in science? 

 As he is one of my neighbors I would be glad if some 

 one versed in snake knowledge would tell us all about 

 him. I find that interest in snakes is very wide-spread 

 in the human family, to such a degree that it seems to be 

 an original principle or element of the human mind, Old 

 and young, kings and beggars, philosophers and clowns 

 are readily held by narratives of snakes. 



We have another snake here of nearly similar habits to 

 the bull, but very much smaller and more active. His 

 color is a mixture of yellow and green, mostly blended 

 together. We call hirn the prairie snake, as he is seen 

 only on the prairies. I treat this snake with high con- 



sideration, and have instructed my little boys when they 

 go wandering never to harm him. Though small, they 

 are of great courage and strength. They attack the rattle- 

 snake boldly and kill him by the strength of their grip. 

 I saw one hardly four feet long attack a monstrous rattler 

 fully three feet longer and many times surpassing the 

 little prairie snake in thickness. The straggle was terri- 

 ble, but he would have killed the rattlesnake beyond a 

 doubt had I not in my eagerness to witness the whole of 

 the affray, ventured so near that he was frightened away 

 from his'enterprise, being very timid of man. As he slid 

 off into the brush he seemed entirely fresh, while the 

 rattler fell heavily and almost exhausted. And yet this 

 little fellow is non-venomous too, and one of the most 

 amiable of all snakes. He will not climb a tree, but the 

 bullsnake, if meddled with, will, I think, always do so if 

 he finds one convenient. N. A. T. 



Abilene, Texas, June 21, 1887. 

 [The bullsnake is probably Pituophis bellona.] 



"Three Black Crows."— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 You can readily understand that I am always interested 

 in all ruffed grouse stories which do not have a gun in 

 them, whether they relate to hybrids or full bloods. A 

 few weeks ago, a man doing some work for me took 

 special notice of my coops of ruffed grouse, and informed 

 me that up in Michigan, where he came from, a gentle- 

 man had already been successful in breeding them in 

 confinement. He insisted with such apparent good faith 

 on his statement, that I procured the address as nearly as 

 he could give it and sent out a letter of inquiry. One or 

 two repetitions were necessary before the inquiry was 

 answered, but I finally discovered the gentleman in ques- 

 tion at Carp Lake, Mich. It appealed that the story was 

 all a mistake, and had its only foundation in the fun-lov- 

 ing proclivities of some of the numerous guests who make 

 fishing headquarters at Carp Lake. "We raised some 

 fine bantam chicks," said my correspondent, "and the 

 old hen looked so much like a partridge (grouse) that 

 some people mistook the whole family for partridges;" 

 and so the story spread that a family of young grouse had 

 been raised in confinement. He does not say that the in- 

 nocent tenderfeet were encouraged in their delusion 

 about the grouse (bantams), but that, probably, was un- 

 necessary.— J. B. B. (Toledo. O.). 



New Birds from Mexico and South America.— In 

 the Annals of the New York Academy of Science, Vol. 

 IV. No. 2, the veteran ornithologist Mr. Geo. N. Lawrence 

 describes three new birds from Mexico, Yucatan and 

 Central America. These are Regulus satrapa aztecus, 

 smaller than R. satrapa, but witli a larger and longer 

 bill and much darker coloration; Troglodytes brachyztrus 

 from Yucatan, which resembles T. intermedins, but is 

 lighter colored throughout, has a longer bill, but shorter 

 wings and tail, and lacks the concealed white spots on 

 the rump; and Othceca Jiaviventris, which is somewhat 

 like O. gratiosa sclater, but differs in color and in some 

 of its proportions. 



'mm §ng mid 0ntf. 



Address all communications to Die Forest and Stream Puh. Co. 



CATTARAUGUS BREAKERS. 



THE old Cattaraugus breakers are a thing of the past. 

 The term breakers was applied to the slate-rock 

 cliffs that environ the curves and bends of that most tur- 

 bulent, unnavigable and fish-forsaken of all waters, the 

 Cattaraugus Creek, New York. It is ignored and given a 

 wide berth by even the most inveterate fishermen, except 

 at the mouth, where it empties into Lake Erie. The 

 water has a buttermilky hue and runs over a bed of 

 broken slate rock, which is some hundreds of feet lower 

 than the adjacent tableland, and where the perpendicular 

 wall of rock towers up on one side a corresponding bluff 

 of equal height is seen opposite, not quite perpendicular 

 but nearly so. The rock cliffs are a prominent feature, 

 on one side or the other, for nearly the whole length of 

 the stream, or up to the main forks. In the early days it 

 was not a rare occurrence that deer, when hard pressed 

 by dogs, would make a flying leap from the brink of the 

 cliff, and dog and deer have been found on the bed rock 

 below, each a shapeless mass of crushed flesh and bones. 

 The stream has always been a barrier in the way of 

 travel, especially among the early settlers, who could ill 

 afford to construct a highway ever across the most 

 favored points, where the occasional gaps led down to 

 the stream. It is only within the last decade that a rail- 

 road bridge has been built across the chasm at an im- 

 mense cost. Happily the main stream is not very lengthy 

 considering the size and volume of water. There are 

 many forks, and the several tributaries embrace a large 

 tract of country where, in the olden time, game was 

 abundant, even to repletion. 



Here my experience in woods lore began, and here in 

 my boyhood days I was conversant with many hunting 

 incidents which occurred among the early settlers, some 

 of which are as indelibly stamped on my memory as if 

 they had occurred but yesterday. These incidents were 

 seldom of a tragic nature, but more often bordered on the 

 ludicrous. 



Once, two of the early settlers, King and Mayo, were 

 out after coons. It was after a January thaw, the snow 

 being about 2ft. deep. King, who walked on snowshoes, 

 was a shrewd hunter, 6ft. 2in. tall, and carried a long- 

 barreled English fowling-piece, which in those day3 was 

 considered a very finely made gun, a flint-lock of course. 

 Mayo was a heavily built Dutchman, much better skilled 

 in chopping and log-rolling than hunting, so he carried 

 an axe and was without snowshoes, but walked hi King's 

 tracks. Two large dogs followed up in the rear. They 

 failed in their search for coons, although this game was 

 plenty, but the thaw was of too short duration to bring 

 them' out. But the hunters struck the track of a. bear, 

 which had been made the day before ; and this they fol- 

 lowed, confidently expecting to find bruin high up in 

 some large hollow tree. The track led them up to the 

 borders of a deep ravine, on the brink of which the trunk 

 of an old decayed tree had fallen, parallel with and jut- 

 ting over the edge, and the crusted snow which had gath- 

 ered on it projected over still further. The face of the 



bluff was too steep for any growth of timber, but a few 

 boulders pointed out ; and the bottom, which was some 

 60ft. below, was filled with snow which had blown in, to 

 the depth of 5 or 6ft. 



When they came up to the edge of the bluff, King, 

 being one or two steps ahead, walked one step too far; 

 and the snow bank caved off, pitching liim headlong, just 

 as the bear was routed from under where it had lain 

 cooped up for the last two days. Mayo said he was quite 

 sure that King struck square on top of the bear, and that 

 the dogs lit on at the same time, and that they didn't 

 slide down, but rolled, not separately, but in one promis- 

 cuous pile; and that it was a rolling fight from top to 

 bottom, when the bear led off up the opposite bluff, 

 followed by the dogs. But King had pitched head and 

 shoulders deep down into the snow, his snowshoes being 

 the most prominent feature. It was but the work of a 

 moment for Mayo to slide down and pull King out of the 

 snow. His snowshoes, which had been a sore impedi- 

 ment in Ms involuntary revolutions, still hung to his 

 feet, and he had held on with a death grip to his gun. 

 His clothes were badly torn; he had some rough scratches 

 and was slightly bitten in the leg — didn't know whether 

 it was by dog or bear; but otherwise he was not seriously 

 injured. The dogs came back in due time, but the bear 

 was seen no more. 



As soon as King got righted up so as to breathe freely 

 and was somewhat recovered, he turned to Mayo, half in 

 anger and half in jest, and threatened to shoot him on 

 the spot if he didn't promise then and there never to 

 mention to any outsiders anything relating to the manner 

 in which he got so unceremoniously thrown out of gear. 

 At this Mayo burst into a roar of laughter, and called his 

 attention to Ms gun, the barrel of which was bent into 

 the shape of a half moon. King didn't seem to know how 

 it was done, but Mayo thought that in his rough-and-tum- 

 ble descent he had whipped it over one of the boulders 

 Which pointed out on the face of the bluff. 



The generation to wMch King and Mayo belonged have 

 long, long ago passed away ; and the next have mostly gone, 

 and the tMrd and fourth are occupymg their places. We 

 might as well look for wild deer and bears on Broadway, 

 New York, as anywhere m the region I have mentioned, 

 which now contains a dense population. ANTLER. 



Grandview, Tenn. 



LYMAN MEETING HOUSE. 



THREE miles from the town of Alfred, in York county, 

 Maine, is a neighborhood which has been known for 

 many years as Lyman Meeting House. It is a pleasant 

 community of prosperous, mtelligent farmers, For the 

 meeting house itself, it stands alone, surrounded by pas- 

 tures and woods. It is the old-fasMoned, square edifice, 

 in which New England Congregationalists have wor- 

 shipped since the earliest times. Within a few years a 

 bell tower, containmg an actual bell, has been superim- 

 posed upon tliis ancient church, and a new and smart 

 coat of white paint covers its gray and weatherbeaten 

 walls. The soimd of the "church-going bell" upon Sun- 

 day mornings has something startling and incongruous in 

 it as it wakens the echoes in the near pine woods and the 

 silent fields. Behind the church is an old burying ground, 

 overgrown with weeds and brambles, and nearly filled 

 with sunken graves and fallen headstones; yet it is such 

 a peaceful and sunny spot that death seems a qmet sleep 

 indeed. A few steps beyond an old lane opens from the 

 Mghway, a veritable "grassy road." Here, in the hottest 

 noonday, lingers a cool, dim gloom. The boughs mter- 

 lace above it; tall ferns and sly, pale flowers love its damp 

 green spaces. All at once, from tMs lovely walk, one 

 comes upon a broad, smooth field, surrounded by a thick 

 hedge of sumach, alder and gaddmg wild grape vines. 

 In the middle of this field are the ruins of what was once 

 the Congregationalist parsonage. The steps that led to 

 its hospitable door yet stand in their accustomed place, 

 but the feet which passed over them are still forever. 



It is not an unusual thing for those who go on the first 

 of September to hunt the partridge to lie at full length 

 under some spreadmg tree, recubans sub tegmine fagi, 

 pipe in mouth and faithful dogs by side, and muse on 

 these surroundmgs, especially when they have been able 

 to do but little else. Perhaps I should not say "but 

 little," for Charles and Harry and I had six fine partridges 

 and a woodcock as the result of a day's shooting and 

 loitermg tM'ough these beautiful woods and fields. I had 

 a fine Irish setter (fine to look at but rather slow), while 

 Charles swore by (and occasionally at) a black and wMte 

 pointer, which he considered an uncommon animal. We 

 held long discussions on the relative merits of pomters 

 and setters, which were settled m this way: We came 

 out, tired and thirsty, to a farmhouse, where the farmer 

 and his tall, lank melancholy son drew water for us. "I 

 say, pa," observed this youth, "I think the braown dorg 

 [I prided myself upon his rich dark red color] is harnsomer 

 than the bulldorg. Don't yeou ?" Imagine the f eelings 

 of the pointer man ! 



When we finally reached home that day, where our 

 wives and suppers were waitmg, Harry, C.'s son, an irre- 

 pressible of fifteen summers, performed a lively war 

 dance in the back yard, shouting "I've got one, mother! 

 I've got one!" "You've got one," repeated his father 

 sarcastically, "Yes you have. But [relenting mto a smile] 



"Little Nim' 

 Would have fared mighty slim 

 If he hadn't seen a partridge, 

 A-sittin' on a lim\" 



A day or two after there came to our door a youthful 

 native, accompanied by as " ornery " a cur dog as one 

 would wish to see. This son of the soil carried an ancient 

 muzzleloadmg gun; he also carried (ye gracious powers!) 

 a tremendous string of partridges. I have usually in 

 speaking of them said that they reached from Ms shoulder 

 to his heel, and he was a tall fellow, too. I will now con- 

 fess that this was somewhat exaggerated, but it was really 



a beautiful show of game. "Where 's Mr. ?" asked 



he. " Gone out." " I 'd liked to a' seed Mm," said tliis 

 mighty hunter. This wish was entirely upon his side. I 

 did not yearn for his society. Then, followed by Ms 

 "blarsted dorg," with his partridges dangling and flap- 

 pmg over his shoulder, he "went Ms ways." Soon after, 

 I too, went mine, a sad and humble man. But if any one 

 asks me if there are partridges around Lyman Old 

 Church, I answer meekly, Yes. there are, for I have seen 

 them. P. 



Middlktown, Connecticut. 



