Due. 2?, 1888. j 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



4B8 



A few months after our visit this same man who gave 

 I lip his house to us and did everything in his power for 



■ our pleasure, killed in pure wickedness four defenseless 

 ■negroes. It seems that lie had been to town and was re- 

 ■lurniog home in his bateau with a new Winchester rifle 



■ that he had just purchased. On nearing camp he saw 

 ■six negroes sitting on the bank, and to use his own words, 

 ■"wishing to see it the gun was any account," he popped 

 ■away at the poor devils, who tried to make their escape 

 ■as best they could, but left four of their number dead on 



■ the ground. He afterward told a steamboat man of my 

 ■acquaintance that "the gun was good enough, for he 



■ killed four out of six, and it was not a good day for kill- 

 ling niggers either." Efforts were made to bring him to 



■ justice for this outrage, but he shouldered the gun that 



■ had done such murderous work and took to the swamps, 

 where no one could or Would follow, and since then it is 

 reported that he has left the country. 



Not very far from camp there was a small island, in 

 the midst of the swamp, that was an impenetrable 

 thicket of cane and palmetto, through which one could 

 with difficulty force his way or even see for more than 

 a few yards: long vines hung from the trees, adding to 

 the tangle, and the dead leaf accumulations of years 

 made a carpet of soft mould in which the feet sank for 



had left its track in the soft ooze, close to the water. We 

 used to beat this thicket every day with our two hounds, 

 ;but it was only a matter of chance with the odds 

 strongly against us, on account of the bushes, which 

 were so thick that though deer were frequently heard 

 galloping a short distance away, they were completely 

 hidden from our view. I killed an old doe by firing 

 rapidly with my Winchester at her retreating form, of 

 which I barely had a glimpse ere she was out of sight, 

 and though my game fell dead within 25yds., it was 

 some moments before I knew whether I had made a hit 

 or miss. F., who was as dead a shot as I saw among 

 the backwoodsmen, killed two bucks, and they, with my 

 ►doe, completed the bag for the week. It was near this 

 jungle that I saw for the first time a flock of the beauti- 

 fpl Carolina paroquets, but I understood from the natives 

 that they are quite abundant in the woods at all seasons 

 ,of the year. 



We had opportunities during our stay with F. of seeing 

 something of the lumber industry as "well as of the log- 

 men. It is a hard life that they lead— a damp, cheerless 

 struggle for a mere subsistence— nine months the men 

 arc wracked with ague, and during the balance of the 

 year, cold winds from the gulf make the climate any- 

 thing but an agreeable one. Most die violent deaths, 

 either by drowning or being caught in log jams, and 

 the constant exposure makes consumption very preva- 

 lent. The work is badly paid, the sawmills at Apala- 

 chicola having reduced the price of logs to a mere song, 

 but there is no other market at hand and the men are 

 obliged to submit with the best grace possible. Yet with 

 all these drawbacks, many like the life, and I know well 

 educated, intelligent men who prefer the wild existence 

 of a lumber camp to any easier business: there seems to 

 be a peculiar fascination about the swamps in their 

 lonely grandeur, and a feeling of strength and manliness 

 in f elling the great forest giants that rear their heads 

 aloft in all their glory- 



Most of the land upon which the timber grows belongs 

 to railroad corporations, it is utterly worthless save for 

 the lumber, and is generally under water for the greater 

 part of the year. Efforts are made to compel the logmen 

 to pay a certain amount for each tree felled, but it is 

 rather up-hill work in spite of the level nature of the 

 country, and the collector of such tolls is not very apt to 

 fare well in the pursuit of his duty, as it is impossible to 

 keep up with the quantity cut, and many of the men re- 

 fuse to pay the price asked, so that not much stumpage 

 enriches the coffers of the railroads. Cypress is by far 

 the most valuable of the trees, it grows best in water 

 several feet deep, and the labor of cutting down and 

 hauling out the ponderous logs is very severe, the men 

 having frequently to stand all day knee-deep iu the mud 

 and water of the bogs. Owing to its weight cypress will 

 not float when green, but has to be killed by "knicking" 

 when the sap is down; then the trees are felled and sawn 

 into logs, after which they remain where they are until 

 the first freshet makes the water in the swamps suf- 

 ficiently deep to float them into the main stream. Here 

 they are made into long rafts and, together with some pine 

 timber to add to the buoyancy of the whole, are floated 

 in the current to Apalachicola. Pine lumbering is not so 

 severe; the trees generally grow upon com paratively high 

 and dry ground, and the logs are much easier handled 

 owing to their being lighter than cypress. When cut 

 some distance from a stream they are transported by ox 

 wagons to the water, and there made into rafts essenti- 

 ally the same as in the case of the heavier cypress. Of 

 course cypress is very much more valuable than pine, and 

 commands a higher price at the mills. 



From the camp of our desperado host we made a quick 

 run down the Brother to the main river and thence to 

 Apalachicola, the trip of twenty-four miles being made 

 in three hours, including a stop for wood. Once more in 

 town we made a beeline for Uncle Bill Fuller's hotel, 

 where we reveled in clean sheets and comfortably made 

 beds. Camping is all very well, and none enjoy it more 

 than I do, but it must be confessed that after one has 

 been sleeping on the ground for a couple of weeks a 

 civilized bed is relished and appreciated. 



Our trip was voted a success. We had not made a very 

 brilliant score on game, nor had our fishing achievements 

 been phenomenal, but we had seen something of a curi- 

 ous country, and gotten to know a strange race of men, 

 and it was with feelings of genuine regret that we bade 

 the captain and Joe good-by, and watched the little 

 Ellen steam up the river and out of sight. 



A. M. Reynolds. 



ttti[ul Jfisforg. 



THE LITTLE CHIEF HARE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Not a number of the Forest and Stream but starts a 

 halt dozen topics I wish to hear discussed by the brethren 

 or to which I wish I could add a word myself. In your 

 issue of Dec. 6 I rejoice to see again the handiwork of 

 "Yo., and I hope it is but the beginning of another 

 series of his delightful papers. A trip over the Northern 

 Pacific Railroad last summer— flying one though it was 

 — parried me near enough to the Walled-in Lakes to 

 excite me with the wish to explore them, and the sight 

 of Indian tepees and colloquies at stations and on reserva- 

 tions with Crows, Blackfeet, Piegans and Stonies, in- 

 creased the interest. 



I must beg space for one more word. In a recent num- 

 ber Dr. Shufeldt briefly describes the little chief harp, 

 but says that he has never seen it. though he has heard 

 its cry among the mountains of Wyoming. If he wishes 

 to secure specimens for study I am sure I can make it 

 easy for him, as I can put him in communication with a 

 gentleman whose home is in their haunts and by whose 

 kindness I secured a specimen last summer. 



Two years before, on making the ascent of George's 

 Peak in Colorado, I noted the Rocky Mountain marmot 

 so well described by Dr. Shufeldt, and also a little ani- 

 mal called cony by the mountaineers, but with which I 

 was entirely unfamiliar. It was, as I afterward learned, 

 the little chief hare. It was very abundant on the rocky 

 upper slopes of the peak, running swiftly in and out of 

 the rock heaps, and uttering its shrill, clear, but thin cry. 

 which had something almost plaintive in it, a mountain 

 cry, just suited to the high altitude and thin air. I had 

 no firearm^ with me then, but studied the little creature 

 as well as I could with my glas? and marvelled much 

 what means of sustenance it found where almost every 

 trace of veget ition ha d disappeared. The marmots do not 

 as a rule, I judge, go so high, though their large size and 

 greater needs would seem to the uninitiated to indicate a 

 rather slim pasturage where we found them. 



There is something queer about the marmots, too. for 

 in Switzerland I have certainly heard the vigorous 

 whistle of the Alpine marmot hundreds of feet higher 

 than I could trace any vegetation whatever, mere deso- 

 lation of rock and snow, and separated by a broad and 

 deeply crevassed glacier from any bare ground or rock 

 which did produce plant life. * Who knows but the 

 animals have Alpine clubs and that the marmot I heard 

 was a brave explorer, and carried for provision a, little 

 wad of grass in his pouch, nihhled from the slopes far 

 below. But to return to the little chief hare. On ascend- 

 ing Cray's Peak again last July I again heard the animal 

 all about me, and the son of my host and guide shot for 

 me a specimen, which interested me not a little. I had 

 always supposed that the little chief was a genuine hare 

 and found further to the south, but here he was in great 

 numbers, and having to my eyes more points and resem- 

 blance to a rat, though thicker set and a much more re- 

 spectable looking animal everyway. It had no tail at 

 all, and its fur was a soft gray without the long hairs of 

 the rat. I had no means of preserving my specimen, 

 though much I wished it, and so I gave it to the seller of 

 natural history specimens at Rawlings on the U. P. R. R., 

 who promised to preserve it. C. H. Ames. 



John Patterson, West Goshen, says he witnessed an in- 

 cident in fox hunting on Saturday that he never before heard 

 of. The hunters were giving reynard a good chase, but the 

 animal was a good distance ahead. Mr. Patterson saw the 

 iox approach his house through the cornfield and he could 

 hear the sound of the dogs as they sped in that direction. 

 But the fox did not seem one bit alarmed and, strange to 

 say, he was even composed enough to stop and secure one of 

 Mr. Patterson's chickens before going further. The chicken 

 he took and went on over the brow of an adjacent hill, and at 

 the same moment the hounds hove in sight.— West Chester 

 Ji,ocal News. 



AN INTERESTING HYBRID. 



IN another column will be found some remarks on the 

 introduction in America of foreign game birds, and 

 below we give an account of what is believed to be a 

 hybrid between two grouse, the ptarmigan of New- 

 foundland and the black-game of Europe, whose intro- 

 duction into Newfoundland was recorded in these 

 columns. Such a hybrid would hardly be expected, for 

 though different species of pheasants often breed together, 

 different species of grouse do so but seldom. The Even- 

 ing Mercury (St. Johns, N. F.) says: "It will be remem- 

 bered by most of our readers that, in the fall of 1886, the 

 introduction of black-game into Newfoundland was car- 

 ried out by Mr. Robert Langrishe-Mare, one of our keenest 

 sportsmen and most suceessful deer slayers. The experi- 

 ment was watched with great interest, not only by the 

 lovers of field sports, but by the public generally.' If this 

 noble bird shou ld thrive here, and extend over the island, 

 a valuable addition would be made to our stock of game, 

 and the country would become much more attractive to 

 sportsmen from other lands. 



"The first shipment of these birds arrived here on the 

 21st of October, 1886, from Scotland; and a second on the 

 3d of December. In all something like twenty brace was 

 brought, three birds only dying on the passage. They 

 were at once conveyed by Mr. Mare to a suitable locality, 

 about six miles in from 'the half-way bouse,' between 

 Holyrood and Salmonier. The second lot were taken to 

 a place a few miles nearer Salmonier. On being liberated 

 they at once took wing, flying vigorously. Our Legisla- 

 ture wisely passed a law to protect the new importation 

 for five years. 



"Since the foregoing arrangement was carried into 

 effect accounts have been repeatedly received, showing 

 that the birds were thriving well and rapidly increasing 

 in numbers. Already they are reported to have been 

 seen in Bay St. George, so "that they have actually made 

 they w T ay across the island in that short time. They 

 were also seen at Trepassey, on the southern shore of the 

 island. 



"All this is very gratifying, showing that the black- 

 game have taken kindly to our sod and cliinate, and are 

 likely to find a congenial home here. Mr. Mare has the 

 satisfaction of seeing his irraisewortby efforts crowned 

 with success. 



"But 'it is the unexpected that happens.' A day or 

 two ago a bird was brought from Trepassey which was 

 supposed to be one of our common ptarmigan. It attracted 

 the attention of Mr. Mare and others, and on examination 

 it was found to be a cross between the recently imported 

 black-game and our ptarmigan, having the characteristics 

 of both intermingled. It has the forked and crested tail 

 of the black cock, with two black feathers tipped with 

 white in the fork. Its beak is the curved short beak of 

 the black-game, quite different from that of the ptarmi- 

 gan, and its claws are also those of the black cock. The 

 plumage on the back is an intermixture of the feathers of 

 both species, and the color is brown with black spots or 



bars. At this time of the year our ptarmigan have 

 turned completely white, but in this specimen the belly 

 only is white, and some of the feathers on the wings; and 

 these are the same as the ptarmigan in appearance. The 

 back is brown. It is evidently a bird hatched this sea- 

 son, but it is nearly twice the weight of a ptarmigan of 

 one season. 



"It is a very handsome bird, and all our sportsmen who 

 have examined it pronounce it to be a cross between the 

 black-game and the ptarmigan. We believe that this is 

 the first known instance in which such a crossing has 

 taken place; and certainly no one ever anticipated" such 

 an intermixture. Much interest in it has been awakened 

 here, and Mr. Mare "s office was quite tlnonged yesterday 

 with persons anxious to see the strange bird. 



"It is too soon to speculate from this single specimen 

 as to the possible effect of the crossing of these two 

 species, should it prove to be common. This much is 

 certain— that the black-game have been repeatedly seen 

 in company with the ptarmigan, the coveys 'being 

 mixed. Whether the hybrid will prove to be fertile, anl 

 whether the crossing will result in an improvement on 

 the ptarmigan, only time will tell. The male bird of the 

 black-game is twice the size of the male ptarmigan, and 

 the female is also much larger. Should the hybrid prove 

 to be capable of breeding, variations would go on in- 

 definitely, resulting possibly in the distant future in a 

 new game bird. Meantime much interest attaches to the 

 singular specimen we have described." 



GRASSHOPPERS AND HAWKS. 



BY DR. C. HART MEKRIAM. 



DURING the evening of Aug. 20, 1888. Mr. H. W. 

 Henshaw and I drove from Pendleton to the Uma- 

 tilla Indian Agency in northeastern Oregon, about fifty 

 miles east of the Great Bend of the Columbia. It had 

 been so hot during the day, the thermometer standing at 

 104° in the shade, that we were unable to go out. Driv- 

 ing along the crest of the plateau just south of the 

 Umatilla River, at about sundown, we were astonished to 

 see a very large number of large hawks hopping about 

 on the ground, catching grasshoppers. We counted 

 about 150 of these hawks, and there must have been at 

 least 200 in the immediate neighborhood. At first we 

 took them to be rough-legs, but later ascertained that 

 nearly if not all were Swainson's hawks {Buteo mcain- 

 soni). The period between sundown and dark in that 

 region is so short that the birds Avere still catching grass- 

 hoppers when overtaken by darkness. 



About 6 o'clock the next morning I visited the same 

 place and was gratified to find the hawks engaged in 

 making their breakfast of grasshoppers. They°were 

 scattered over a larger area than when we saw them the 

 previous evening. Before 8 o'clock most of them had 

 left the hills and settled down for the day La the poplar 

 trees along the river bottom. Here I found the trees 

 literally full of hawks, and counted as many as thirteen 

 in one tree. Two of the three whose stomachs were ex- 

 amined contained grasshoppers and no other food. The 

 third contained, in addition to grasshoppers, the head of 

 a meadow mouse of the genus Arvicola (sub-genus Cliilo- 

 fks). One contained 88 grasshoppers, another 96, and the 

 third 106. Most of the grasshoppers were a large species 

 of (Edipoda, though a few belonged to the genus Calop- 

 tenus. 



Assuming that each hawk captured 200 grasshoppers a 

 day, and that there were 200 hawks, the daily catch 

 would be 40,000 grasshoppers. At this rate these hawks 

 would destroy 280,000 grasshoppers in a week, and 1,200,- 

 000 in a month. I have no means of knowing how long 

 the hawks remained in the neighborhood of Pendleton, 

 but was told that they had been there before our visit. 

 When in southern California about a month later I was 

 told by Mr. Edward Merriam that on three occasions he 

 had noticed similar gatherings of hawks in San Diego 

 county. Once he saw a flock of several hundred large 

 hawks catching crickets in cracked adobe soil in the 

 San Marcos Valley. At night the hawks came into the 

 live oaks at the head of the valley to rest. He shot one 

 and found its stomach packed full of large black crickets. 

 On two other occasions he saw large flocks of these 

 hawks similarly engaged in catching the same species of 

 crickets. The time was during the latter part of Septem- 

 ber. 



Mr. Angel, of San Luis Obispo, Cab, told me that he 

 once saw a large number of large dark-colored hawks 

 flying about over the edge of a prairie fire near Chico, in 

 the Sacramento Valley. The air was full of grasshop- 

 pers, driven out of the grass by the fire, and the hawks 

 were catching and feeding upon them. 



Mr. T. S. Palmer, of Berkeley, Cal.. has kindly fur- 

 nished me with the following interesting communication 

 on a flock of hawks observed by him at Pomona, Cal.: 



"While spending the summer of 1887 at Pomona, Los 

 Angeles county, Cal., I was much interested in a 'flock' 

 of hawks which remained in the vicinity during the 

 month of August. The fact of their congregating in 

 such numbers may be attributed to two causes: (1) ex- 

 ceptional abundance of food in a particular spot; and (2) 

 the fact that most of the birds were buteos (J5. sivainxoni 

 predominating) which were migrating slowly southward. 



"Their favorite resort was a sandy spot a mile east of 

 the town, well out in the middle of the valley, and quite 

 a distance from the neighboring mountains.' A single 

 irrigating ditch supplied the only water to be had, and 

 to it all the birds in the vicinity were accustomed to 

 resort to drink. Rocky and dry as the spot was, it was 

 sparsely wooded with sycamores and live oaks, and over- 

 grown with white sage, cacti, elderberry bushes, efc. 

 About the first of the month the hawks become common, 

 and although at times scarcely any could be seen, a day 

 or two after they would be present in greater numbers 

 than every before. On the 22d of August I succeeded in 

 getting quite close to the flock, and counted fourteen 

 hawks circling about together, much in the manner of 

 turkey buzzards, and not more than 50 or 75yds. from 

 the ground. Nearly all seemed to be young birds, chiefly 

 Buteo b. calurns and Buteo smdnso'ni, although there 

 were several which I was unable to identify. All were 

 intently engaged in bunting, and I have little doubt that 

 they were feeding on grasshoppers. 



""During the month I secured but two specimens. The 

 first taken on the 4th of August, and proved to be a 9 Buteo 

 swainsoni in very dark plumage. Upon dissection the 

 gizzard was found to be tightly packed with grasshop- 

 pers, and the bird had no doubt gorged herself, for when 



