Nov. 2D, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



365 



habits are very much tlio Fame, while they differ princi- 

 pally in then' markings and a few minor particulars. 



Much yet remains to he done by naturalists and others 

 in the way of defining with precision the more exact 

 geographical ranges of these our sixteen species of hares, 

 and no occasion should be lost by those who enjoy the 

 opportunities of sending skins to the Curator of the De- 

 aartnient of Mammals of the U. S. National Mu-euni for 



fag and 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



C CHICAGO, Nov. 19.— Last Saturday evening Mr John 

 J B. Drake, of the Grand Pacific Hotel here, gave bis 



CalLornia. 



Anatomically the rabbit of Europe has been worked out 

 with no little thoroughness by Prof. T. J. Parker, 

 C.iM.Z.S., and published in his admirable little work on 

 vertebrate zootomy. In many particulars rabbits afford 

 capital subjects for directions, as they are clean, 

 nearly always entirely devoid of fat, and of a convenient 

 Size. I am unfamiliar with any better course to pursue 

 as an introduction to the subject of the structure of mam- 

 mals than in offered by one going first carefully over the 

 chapters on the rabbit with material constantly employed 

 and studied, as laid out by Prof. Parker, and then follow 

 it up by a thorough examination of the anatomy of the 

 common cat, with Mivart's work on that animal at your 

 hand. In my next contribution I trust to b£ able to have 

 a word to say about the bats, and continue the publication 

 of the Provisional List of Mammals as given by the U. S. 

 National Museum. 



So far as the ground gone over by me in tbe present 

 article is concerned, the following works in addition to 

 those already enumerated in previous pipers on the 

 Rodent ia, mav be consulted with advantage: Jordan's 

 ♦•Manual of Vertebrates;" T. J. Parker's ''Zootomy;" 

 Arts. "Mouse," "Porcupine," "Hare" and "Rabbit" in the 

 9th Editim uf tbe Encyclo. Brit.; "Somthing about Jack 

 Rabbits," II. W. Shufcldt in The Siciss Cross, July 1887; 

 Professors John Strong Newberry's and C. B. E. Ken- 

 nedy's Reports on "Mammals" in the "Pacific Railroad 

 Surve s'(1859); Lud wig Kumlien's "Contributions to the 

 Natural History of Arctic America," Bull. No. 15, U. S. 

 Nat. Mus. the part devoted to "Mammals." Audubon and 

 Bachman's "Mammals of North America:" The Stand- 

 ard Natural History. Vols, on Mammals, order "Ro- 

 dentia;" "Wallace's "The Geographical Distribution of 

 Animals," 2 vols. 187(5. Cope's "The Mechanical Causes of 

 the Origin of the Dentition of the Rodentia," and others 

 by the same distinguished author. 



..peated _. 



In 1855 he had not so far to go for his game as he has 

 now, and game was not then so much prized. For the 

 dinner of 1888, as may be seen, he fairly ransacked the 

 Rockies to the sea. There were 550 guests present, both 

 ladies and gentlemen appearing in full dress, and the oc- 

 casion was one of magnificent detail in decoration and 

 all else Among others, the following varieties of game 

 are kuown to have been served: Leg of mountain sheep, 

 deer tongue, blacktail deer, saddle mountain sheep, sad- 

 dle of antelope, loin of venison, loin of elk, opossum, 

 coon, black bear, wild goose, sandhill crane, grouse, 

 mallard duck, Virginia partridge, redhead duck, sage 

 hen, brant, wood duck, jack rabbit, squirrel, butterball 

 duck, prairie chicken, blue-winged teal, wild turkey, 

 widgeon, pheasant, plover, quail, venison steak, black- 

 birds, snipe, reedhirds, redwing starling, marsh birds, 

 E 



THE AUDUBON MONUMENT. 



THE movement inaugurated by the Academy of 

 Sciences for the erection of a monument to com- 

 memorate the labors of the distinguished pioneer- 

 naturalist John James Audubon is being quietly persisted 

 in. Funds are not coming in very fast, tor a naturalist, 

 however great his achievements, does not awaken the en- 

 thusiasm of the masses, but the people of the United 

 States, and more especially the more highly educated 

 section of them, are proud of A idubon; and the com- 

 mittee, appreciating the substantial nature of his claims 

 to public recognition, are not to be deterred by unex- 

 pected difficulties. The absence of nearly all the mem- 

 bers of the committee from the city during the vacation 

 season led to the temporary suspension of activity, but a 

 preliminary meeting of the committee was held in the 

 library of Columbia College on "Wednesday evening of 

 last week, and preparations made for a renewal of the 

 campaign. 



The secretary and treasurer, Dr. N. L. Britton, read 

 several letters from influential people expressive of sym- 

 pathy and a desire to co operate in the movement, and 

 all afforded evidence of a widespread sentiment that the 

 living owe it to themselves to make some substantial re- 

 cognition of Audubon's sterling services to his country 

 and to the cause of science. 



Professor Egleston, the chairman, then produced a pro- 

 trait of Audubon, struck from a new plate, which he had 

 had made in accordance with a suggestion at a previous 

 meeting, that a memorial portrait should be struck for 

 distribution among those, and those only, who contrib- 

 ute toward the erection of the monument. 



This portrait is a reproduction, and the only one, from 

 the original portrait by Cmikshauk, which is said to be 

 the best h'keness of Audubon extant, and after some dis- 

 cussion it was decided that a copy should be forwarded 

 to all subscribers of a dollar and upward to the monu- 

 ment fund. The limitation of the portrait to subscribers 

 to the fund only will give it a high value, which will be 

 enhanced with time. 



Another meeting will be held in the first week of De- 

 cember, and the plan of campaign for the immediate 

 future i >rganized. 



Subscriptions may be sent to Dr. N. L. Britten, Secre- 

 tary and Treasurer, Columbia College, New York, or to 

 the office of Forest axd Stream. The Linnaean, Audu- 

 bon and other kindreu societies, are also represented on 

 the Audubon Monument Committee, and are prepared to 

 receive subscriptions in aid. 



GAME IN TOWN. 



ELMIRA, N. Y., Nov. 20.— I notice in your journal of 

 last week several articles under the heading of 

 "Game in Town," which were quite interesting. A few 

 days since, as Dr. Palmer, of this city, was sitting in his 

 private office m rear of his drug sto; e, on South Main street, 

 he was startled by what he at fiist believed to be some- 

 thing thrown heavily against one of the large plate glass 

 windows in the front of the store, and he was not a little 

 surprised, on stepping to the d x>r, to find a ruffed grouse 

 on the walk, struggling from tbe stunning shock it had 

 received in its contact with the glass. The Doctor sayc 

 the bird was a fiue one and afforded him a very palatable 

 dish at dinner the next day. Verily the grouse, like the 

 country youth, seem desirous to explore the ways of the 

 citv, and frequently get bewildered and come to grief, 



L. J. S. 



LAtfaybtte, Ind., Julv 21, 1883.— United States Cartridge Co., 

 Lowell, Mass.: Deah Sirs— X find your ("Unmix paper shot shells 

 excellent aud quil e equal to Eley's. There is no hang fire or ten- 

 dency to do so. 1 inten 1 u^ing your shells in a match next week. 

 I will give them a good bo nn. as they deserve it. 

 Yours truly, 



— Adv. (Signed) W. Graham, Champion English Shot, 



SngliSh hare, squirrel pie, pyiamid of game en Bellevue, 

 spic of birds a la royal, pattie of liver sur socle, boned 

 (pail in plumage. 



I notice that "Indignation" in last week's Forest and 

 Stream rounds up Mr. G. O. Shields for certain state- 

 ments in his article on elk hunting in the current number 

 of Harpers Magazine. It may not be generally known 

 that Mr. Shields is a frequent contributor to the sporting 

 papers over the pen name of "Coquina." He is, or wa=>, 

 the traveling representative of a hardware house in this 

 city, I believe. I heard lately that he had given up his 

 po.-ition and intended to devote himself solely to pure 

 literature. On this account I want "Indignation" to go 

 easy on him. He will have trouble enough all by him- 

 self. 



I am glad to see also that several gentlemen correct a 

 statement of mine, to the effect that Illinois had the only 

 beds in America of the Egyptian lotus. I confess I would 

 not know an Egyptian lotus it I should meet it right out 

 in the woods, as I was not raised in Egypt. Mr. John 

 Gillespie, an old frequenter of the Illinois lake country, 

 was my informant, and he still in-ists that this is the 

 genuine Egyptian lotus, or at least that he was so in- 

 formed by scientific authority. Mr. Gillespie is in pos- 

 session of seeds of the Egyptian lotus sent him from 

 Egypt by a friend; he declares he cannot discover ashade 

 of difference in them from the seeds of the native plant 

 here, although I should not think that strange of itself. 

 The Wisconsin Central guide book, written by a man 

 who is said never to have vi-ited the lakes in question, 

 has the following gush about the lotus: 



"All round the coast the languid air did swoon, 

 Lreathing like one that hath aweary dream."— Tennyson. 

 Here, in the northwestern part of Grass Lake, and covering an 

 area of more than a hundred acres are the beds of the wonderful 

 aquatic plant, the water chinquapin, classified oy the naturalists 

 as the Nclunihr.um lutr-nm, the beautiful water lily, that so closely 

 re enables the water lily of Egypt as to be mistake u by some as 

 the veritable flower mystically honored, and even worshipped in 

 ancient Egypt. 



Theirs was the Nclumbmm spcci'-mim; an-i t he difference between 

 speeJDSUWi and lutcum is about all the difference there is between 

 the beautiful plants of the Orient and these of the Occident. 



Both are brilliant in their coloring; both are fragrant; both 

 loud the air with odors that would discount Araby the Dies*; and 

 both belong to peculiar localities. If the ±\clumheum specinsum is 

 mystically honored in China, and adored bv the swarthy races in 

 far off India, its counterpart, the Nelumljeum luteum, or water 

 Cuinquap.n,in the lands where the sun sets, has also its hundreds 

 of devotees. , ,, 



There are few places in the world where the soil permits the 

 rooting of this wondrous flower that loaded the air of the ancient 

 world with such fragrance that the people called it tho breathing 

 of a diviniiv, and bowed the knee m worship. 



But we have chanced to find one, and when the sunset lingers 

 o'er the scene, and soft the winds come floating on the deep, there 

 is a sweetness in the air. and dreaminess tha- makes the soul for- 

 get the woes of earth. The lotus flowers, the lily-pad of India, 

 breathes upon the air, aud every moving wave of wind is laden to 

 its depths with scenttd blessings from the holy flower. The 

 Eastern nations drink its fragrance in, and bless their Allah for 

 its good. We, on the shore where oriental sunsets fade aud go to 

 kiss the midnight, have here a chance to breathe the same soft 

 air, to dream the languid dream, to lose ourselves in that en- 

 chanted sleep where darkness fades and everything is light. 



Such is the odor which the lotus brings, and when we pluck 

 them from the stem and b^ar them off as captives to our wish, 

 they even yield a richer fragrance, The more we crush, the 

 greater is the sweetness they will give. 



Here is their Western home, and here they bide. 

 If I am not mistaken, I recognize the fine Italian 

 hand of Col. P. Donan in the above afflatus. At any 

 rate, the local plant is a very beautiful one. Its stalks 

 stand upright at quite a height above the water, so that 

 when one sits upon his boat seat, the flowers are quite 

 above his head. This is not the case with our ordinary 

 waterlily, as everybody knows. The plant is spreading 

 rapidly through the lakes, and adds much to their attrac- 

 tivene s. 



Chicago, Nov. 21. — The following is the latest exploit 

 of the irrepressible Buffalo Jones, of Garden City, Kansas, 

 from whom nothing has been beard for several weeks on 

 buffalo matters. It seems that he has bought a whole 

 herd of buffalo at one wipe this time, and a herd bigger 

 than his own. The morning dispatches of Northwestern 

 papers held the following news to-day: 



u MCSNKAPOTJ8. Minn., Nov. 20— Special Telegram.— The Mani- 

 toba's fast freight from Winnipeg brought iuaqu-er load of 

 cattle tht3 morning in the shape of a herd of eighty hree buffa- 

 loes. The herd is the famous one raised by Warden Benson, of 

 Stony Mountain, N. W. T., since 1877, from a young bull and four 

 beifers. Tuey have been bought hy C. J. Jones, of Garden City, 

 Kan., who has for some years been making a special study of the 

 buffalo, and he has at preseut a herd of aoout fifty on his ranch 

 in Kausas. He he^an crossing them with cattle and his experi- 

 ments ha*'e been successful, the half-breed nufftlo being a naidy 

 and striking animal, while much less wild in its nature. The 

 raising of the bison has b-come. a profitable business, t .o, as fifty 

 cents a pound for buffalo meat can be obtained in Chicago. 

 The animals will be shipped South to-night. Cattle reisers every- 

 where are watching the Jones experiments with much interest. 

 Bison in their wild state are now almost unknown, a fact which 

 makes the attempt to domesticato and perpetuate the spanies all 

 the more interesting." 



When Mr. Grinnell passed through here on his Mon- 

 tana trip, he remarked that he had got track of two or 

 three hunches of domesticated buff alo. If the addresses 

 of the owners are forthcoming. I do not doubt that the 

 rapacious C. J. will abso"b these buffalo also, for he 

 seems determined to have all there are in the country. I 

 like this. It is in the good old Western way. It has 



some go about it. Let Mr. Jones alone, and he will re- 

 ropulate the country with buffalo, or go half way to it. 

 Look how rapidly the Benson herd has grown. What is 

 there, after all. to prevent the building up of an enormous 

 herd within a few years, and thus proving that what was 

 thought a hare-brained hobby was really a shrewd and 

 plucky enterprise. I hope Mr. Jones will make a half 

 mill ion off his buffalo. If he does, I shall claim my share 

 for feeding that butting buffalo calf down in the Pan- 

 handle country, on the hunt when we brought back 

 thirteen calves. Mr. Jones has purchased several other 

 buffalo besides these last; one or two he got, I think, trorn 

 a Colorado rancher, and as many from the Indian Terri- 

 tory. I have not heard wlndrsuccess he had m cross- 

 breeding this year. One of Mr. Jones's men told me— as 

 I may have stated— that a big black Galloway domestic 

 bull whipped out the buffalo, which were younger. 



Chicago, Nov. 24.— Mr. F. A. Howe, general agent for 

 the Grand Trunk Railway, aDd b? the way a most kindly 

 though dignified gentleman, is the president of the Tol- 

 le>ton Gun Club, which has perhaps the most seclusive 

 and most sought-after membership of any club in the 

 city. Mr. Howe lias grown gray in the interest of duok 

 shooting and railwav service, and having been a close 

 student of the habits of the birds of this region, his words 

 are entitled to weight. I had quite a talk with him the 

 other day about the subject of feeding the wild ducks, as 

 the Tolleston Club has Ibis fall done. 



"I killed fifteen birds on our rnsrsh yesterday morn- 

 ing," said Mr. Howe. "*nd among them were blue and 

 greenwing teal. Do you hear of teal being killed now 

 on any of the other marshes? No. Nor do you hear of 

 any other marsh affording such shooting this fall as ours 

 has done. The reason for this, and the reason why our 

 ducks are staying with us so late is that we have made it 

 an object for them to stay. We feed them. And wo 

 have got the ducks. 



"There is a vast amount of ignorance, even among 

 sportsmen, about the matler of natural feed for wild 

 ducks. I presume very few who push through a wild 

 rice swamp know much about the rice. They think that 

 tbe blossom of the rice holds the seed. Such is nut the 

 case at all, anymore than that the ta>sel of corn holds 

 the ear. As with the corn pla ^t, it is the dropping of 

 pollen from the flower which fertilizes the seed; and the 

 seed of the rice plant, which is all that affords food to the 

 ducks, is really a very insignificant affair. I know what 

 I am talking about when I say that I believe if one acre 

 of the densest of wild rice swamp were gathered and 

 stripped, there would not be a half bushel of seed. Not a 

 very great plenty of feed for large numbers of ducks. 



'•Very well, let us look further at it. We have armies 

 of blackbirds in this country. The wild rice ripens just 

 about the time the oats are harvested. The blackbirds 

 leave the oat fields and swarm upon the wild rice swamps. 

 Out of the half bushel per acre, how much rice do you 

 suppose they leave for even the advance guard of the 

 ducks? Not very much, vou may be sure. 



What is left for the ducks? A little wild celery in the 

 deeper lakes and certain roots in the shallower marshes. 

 The birds do not feed on the gram fields to any extent in 

 this country, but hang close to the water. If water is 

 plentiful, so is their feed, namely, certain grasses and 

 roots. But observe, we have had three exceedingly dry 

 years, one of which is almost unparalleled in that regard. 

 The water has been low all along the Kankakee, and 

 thousands and thousands of acres of giand duck m^rsh 

 have been burnt over. What is the consequence? Why, 

 tbe feed roots have been killed, burnt out ten feet below 

 the ground. What is there left for the ducks to live on? 

 I am sure I do not know how our sportsmen should ex- 

 pect any shooting. 



"Some of us in the Tolleston club talked over the 

 matter of feed. A great many thought the idea of no 

 value at all. I had the matter in my charge and know 

 just what was done. Since August last we have put 

 down on our marsh, in different places, twelve tons of 

 mill screenings, one ton of buckwheat on the straw, one 

 ton of glucose refuse, and one hundred bushels of corn 

 on the cob, cut up. Now I will tell you how the ducks 

 acted about it. 



"I pushed out along a crooked little channel and found 

 a little pond not a quarter of an acre in size. Here I put 

 down a quantity of corn, scattering it near the edge in 

 the water. Three days later I returned, and when my 

 boat broke into the little pond I believe there were 5,000 

 teal went off. and then I do not know bow many mal- 

 lards. I pushed along the shore where the com had been 

 put down, and you may believe the mud was tracked up 

 as if it were a barnyard, where the birds had oragged 

 the corn out of the deep water and come ashore to de- 

 tach the kernels from the cob. In a few moments the 

 birds besran to swarm back. I needed no fuithei proof 

 of the efficacy of feed or of the ability of ducks to find it. 



"You may be sure that when a duck flies over- a mar-h 

 he knows mighty well where the feed is, if it be only on 

 never so small a place. You have doubtless seen proof 

 of this in your own shooting I rem* mber that once m 

 Missouri a friend and I had good mallard shoo ing over a 

 bed of feed not larger than this room. There was a sort 

 of spiral grass there which we did not see anywhere else, 

 and the birds found it out of all that country, and all the 

 ducks on the bottom came to that one place. 



"We noticed how eagerly the cattle ate the refuse de- 

 posited near our marsh by a large glucose mill. Left m 

 the air this refuse soon becomes black and fermented; 

 but in the water it remains yellow and fresh. We re- 

 solved to try it, and put a few boat loads iushore, throw- 

 ing it on the lily-pads and lotus stalks as much as po-sitle. 

 A few hours later, when the workmen returned with 

 other boat loads, they found the ducks and mudhens 

 fairly swarming on the grounds. They had torn up the 

 lily and lotus stalks, and fairly spread devastation 

 through the place. They had eaten every bit of the feed 

 clean up. 



"If this were not proof enough, the crops of clucks 

 killed on our marsh would furnish evidence in plenty as 

 to the nature of their feed. We therefore kn<j v it to be 

 a fact that our experiment of feed has been a success. 

 We have had better shooting this year than for three 

 years past, whereas all the other clubs are ready to give 

 up, and say the ducks have left for good. To me it seems 

 plain, that if all the clubs would feed, all would hava 

 shooting. 



"It is perhnps not generally believed that ducks will 

 almost invariably go north over the line they took while 

 going south the season before; yet I think this is cer 



