Aug. 22. 188ft.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



S3 



thought of those children, whose lot was cast with the 

 despised race of the mother, though more of white than 

 of negro blood ran in their veins. I remember one of 

 them, a comely, sad-faced woman, harbored in middle 

 age in the family of a negro, whom in her girlhood she 

 was too prond to marry. Poor Chloe, on what shore, far 

 from this quiet st ream' you first beheld, were you stranded 

 by the tide of yearb? 



I round the* last thicket that hides my boat, grasping 

 my paddle for the long, strong push that shall send her 

 swishing through the marsh, and my foot is almost raised 

 to step on board, when I discover that she is not here. 

 The sole occupant of her flattened bed of rushes is a hig 

 bullfrog, who winks at me placidly over his broad 

 straight mouth, uncommitted by upward or downward 

 curve to a smile of derision or a sad expression of sym- 

 pathy. Over there on the further shore, in the very 

 place where I sought her this morning, just as far from 

 me now as then, lies my boat in the port to which the 

 honest thief has most considerately returned her. 



If my emotions are those of gratitude or of a quite op- 

 posite character, 1 have no language wherewith to give 

 them expression, but if that tellow were within fifty 

 yards of me at this moment, I am inclined to believe that 

 he would have reason to be thankful that I am hunting 

 to-day without a gun. Rowland E. Robinson. 



Ferris buroh, Vt, 



HOTEL LIFE IN EUROPE. 



)'N November, 1881, accompanied by my wife I started 

 for Europe, where we remained until December, 

 1882. We landed in Havre, spent a month in France, 

 another in Germany and Austria, and from February 

 until May in Italy, the summer in Germany, France and 

 Switzerland. Since our return I have very frequently 

 been consulted by friends in moderate circumstances, as 

 to ( he expenses of such a trip 1 have always stated, 

 although in very general terms, for I have relied upon 

 memory, that while journeying was dearer, yet hotel 

 life in Europe Was much less expensive than in the United 

 Stales. I have long intended to overhaul my hotel bills 

 and find out just what it did cost us. 



A.t each city we visited it was our custom to go to the 

 be.-t hotel, to look at the rooms, obtain prices including 

 service, lights, fires, etc., and to then mention the sum 

 we were willing to pay: in every case this amount, or 

 at least a considerable reduction from the sum first 

 named, was agreed upon. 



We were neither extravagant nor parsimonious. In 

 each place we had a room or rooms, not above third floor, 

 and as high as that only where there was a "lift." We 

 had sometimes one large room, quite as of ten bedroom 

 and parlor, and sometimes three rooms. 



Neither of us drank much wine, but complied with the 

 usual custom and always had it at dinner. 



We drank the wines of the country we were in, not 

 calling for claret in Germany, Capri in France, Assmans- 

 hiiisser or Liebfrauenmileb in Italy. In the tables 1 have 

 included board, lodging, service, lights, fuel and laundry. 



I have excluded in most cases the expenses of enter- 

 taining friends, including high-priced wines. 



I had intended excluding all items such as cigars, car- 

 riages, stamps, telegrams, payments for purchases, etc., 

 and have to a great extent carried out my intention: 

 but as the task of overhauling such a lot of bills, contain- 

 ing such an endless amount of items — five or six sometimes 

 for a s mple first breakfast, such as -'2 breads, 2 butters, 

 1 milk, 1 sugar, 2 eggs, 1 honey.'' for instance — has become 

 very tiresome, especially as I have forgott* n the meaning 

 of many of the words, I have gone through the last 

 forty-eight or fifty quite rapidly, and undoubtedly have 

 mis-ed "many such items not large enough to attract 

 attention, for when a hack costs but a mark or franc and 

 a message but a few pfennigs or sous, they don't stand 

 out as they would in a New York hotel bill. It is more 

 than probable that a more careful revision would reduce 

 the amount. 



My most expensive day was at Baden-Baden; one room 

 only, $8.55: the least expensive at Aix la Chapelle, or 

 more proper Burtscbied, a suburb, where sulphur baths are 

 furnished, which was -$4.90 per day for three rooms, first 

 floor. The low price was due to our stay at that place 

 being over three months. A single room at the same 

 hot' 1, for bi t oj e person, cost $5. 



The Quirinal at Rome was remarkably reasonable. 

 First-class in every respect, the charges for one room for 

 25 days were $5.25 per day, but by making arrangements, 

 I was given two large rooms connecting on the upper 

 floor (where all typhoid fever patients are sent by the 

 doctors), and a small room, where I could smoke and 

 sleep, including the board of two nurses and a bottle of 

 Chiante at dinner, for $8.34 per day. I think I've made 

 good my claim that a fairly provident man and wife can 

 live in Europe at the best hotels for less than $o per day. 



In many of the places mentioned there are excellent 

 pensions, notably the Pension Chapman at Rome and 

 Florence, and others in Germany, where very comfort- 

 able rooms and excellent fare can be had at not greatly 

 over one-half of the hotel prices. 



NECESSARY EXPENSES INCURRED DURING A TEAR OF EUROPEAN 

 HOTEL LIFE, 



ii ermA .vy— Baden, De Bum-; Aix la Chapelle, Carlsbad; Cologne. 

 DeDom; h rankfort, hmiihjwttfr Rof; Horn burg, Qualrc Saisom; 

 Hekieli erg, Wand; Blunicli,Q«.atrc Saimm; Mhtcc ,D\4nalete<re; 

 Strasburg, D'AinJel.e.rre; Scxien, De L^hJurope; Stuttgart, Mar- 

 ijuara: 100 days; total bills $800, or $5 per day. 



Austria.— Loeben, Zum Post; Vienna, Metropole; 17 days; hills, 

 $106 33, ur S<i.2o p. r day. 



Belgium.— Antwerp, De IS Europe; Brussels, De Flandres;7 davs; 

 bills. $38 60, or §5.76 per day. 



Switzerland— Geneva, National; 4)4 days; hills $22.50, or $5 

 per aaj . 



France— Havre, Fnscattis; Aixle Bains, De ISUntoen; Paris, 

 BeAlevue; 55 days, bills $385, or $7 ptr day. 

 Italy. — Bellagio, Grand Bretame; Capri, Quissimna; Castelmare, 



Bediicrh.g from above 39 days at Rome, when, through illness, 

 three rooms and uoard of two nurses were required, th<- amounts 

 are. for 79 days: bills $450.35, or $?.70 per day. 



REC \ PITULATION. 



Places. Days. Bills. Per Day. 



Germany 11 160 $800 00 $h Q-j 



Austria 2 17 106 39 6 25 



Belgium 2 7 38 90 5 76 



Switzerland 1 ' 4J4 22 50 5 03 



France 8 55 385 00 7 00 



Italy 14 79 450 35 5 70 



33 322J6 $1803 14 $5 59 



Wanderer. 



"That reminds me." 

 273. 



PLACE— Attic chamber of a farmhouse not far from 

 one of the best trout streams in Massachusetts. 

 Time— Four A. M. The alarm clock goes ©ff with a 

 vehemence that brings a challenge from the rooster in 

 his house twenty rods away, and starts P. and Scribe, 

 who ha ve been listening for it all night, out of bed at the 

 first tinkle. Scribe dresses, and on looking around for 

 P., instead of finding him ready to start, is surprised to 

 see him still in ghostly attire shuffling about the room 

 searching for something. "What are you looking for? 

 Why don't you dress and come along?" a9ks the impa- 

 tient Scribe. -'My pants. Where can they he?" Then 

 with a shudder as he looks at the frosty grass outside, P. 

 turns upon his fellow hogtrotter, "Confound you, Scribp, 

 I believe you've got on pants enough for two." P. looks 

 Scribe over, sees lie is mistaken, and resumes Ms search 

 about the room. "Well," quoth P., after a five minutes' 

 grope in the dark (the only matches in the company had 

 disappeared with P.'s vest, which had gone with his 

 pants), "it's no use, Scribe, I can't go fishing without 

 pants. You had better go along and I'll get back to 

 bed.'' "What's that sticking out from under your pil- 

 low?" asked Scribe. "0,1 remember now," said P., "I 

 put them under my pillow last night to raise my head up 

 higher. Guess I can go after all." Speckled Beadtv. 

 Brockton, Mass. 



274. 



"You wants a b'ar st ry, does you? Well, I spec I kin 

 give you one. It was a good while back, afore this 

 country got settled up so.* Some of my cows got 

 strayed off, down thar in the bottom somewhars; so T jest 

 ketched my old sorrel horse, Pete, and put the saddle'on, 

 and got my cow whip — fur I had a powerful good un in 

 them days; it had a lash nigh 30ft. long, and, lors, how 

 that whip would crack! You might a beam it a mile off. 

 I didn't carry no gun, kase that would be unhandy while 

 I had the whip. I mounted old Pete and took the path 

 down tbar by the branch, what you see over yonder. I 

 rid about half a mile. I reckon, when all of a suddent 1 

 seed a b'ar about half ways up a good-size tree, and not 

 more 'n 30yds. off. Says I, 'I'm gwin to see what my 

 whip will do for you.' Then I rid up a little closter and 

 swung the whip around over my head once or twice, and 

 fetched that b'ar a earwhallaper right over his rump. 

 Luis! you orto have seed that b'ar squirm. It hurt him 

 so bad he couldn't holler. Then I swung the whip around 

 agin, and give him a wipe right over his snout that fotch 

 him down a hit. Then I gin him another on the rump 

 and driv him up a piece. Then on the snout and fotch 

 him down s-ome. I kep' on licking that b'ar, first on one 

 eend and then on t'other, till I got him cowed. Then I 

 whipped him over the snout till he comes down the tree 

 and got in the cow path. When I had him thar, I driv 

 him toward home, and whenever that b'ar tried to leave 

 the path I jest whipped him on that side and driv him 

 back. He was a little onruly at first, but after a little I 

 just driv him same as if he'd been a. cow. And I kep' on 

 a driv in' of him on til I come in sight of my brother. I 

 hollered to him to fetch a gun and shont my b'ar what I 

 had driv home. So he fotch the gun and killed the b'ar 

 in his track*. 



"Since I found out this way to kill b'ars, I never have 

 no trouble to carry my b'ar meat home." Tot. 



*The squatter who told this story to the writer, in Alabama, 

 some fifty years ago, said the country was geitu g "too thickly 

 settled," and that "he should have to move away." When asked 

 how far it was to his nearest neighbor, he said, "Twenty-five 

 miles." 



275. 



Hunting Without a Gun : It was many years ago. He 

 was hunting bear in one of the swamps of Alabama in a 

 canebrake. He was in a narrow path in a dense growth 

 of cane, and had put his gun down for a moment, when 

 suddenly the bear and dogs came down the path, right 

 upon him. The cane was so thick that he could not 

 dodge to either side, and had only time to grasp as many 

 canes on opposite side of him as he could hold, and draw 

 himself up, bis feet above his head, and let the bear and 

 dogs pass under him. A true stoiy, as told me by Uncle 

 Franklin R. ; he being the chief actor and the gymnast 

 on this occasion. TOT. 



THE WOODCOCK'S WHISTLE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Will you kindly allow me a little more space in which 

 to answer the arguments that you advance in support of 

 your belief that the whistle of the woodcock is a vocal 

 noise, and not made by the bud's wings? 



You discriminate between the sound which the bird 

 makes in rising, "which might perhaps be called a whis- 

 tle," and which you admit is produced by the wings, and 

 a "well-known ringing note" which you compare to the 

 twitter of the kingbird. I am perfectly well aware that 

 the woodcock's whistle varies considerably in form and 

 perhaps slightly in tone, also at different times, but to 

 my ear it does not vary to anything like the degree that 

 the scaipe of the Wilson's snipe varies from the slight 

 whisthng which the latter bird sometimes makes with its 

 wings. With the woodcock the variations have seemed 

 to me to be distinctly correlated with different phases of 

 fliffht. Thus I have observed that when the bird beats its 

 wings vigoiously, rapidly and evenly, its whistle is clear, 

 shrill, and practically continuous when the wing beats 

 are slow and languid, the whistle becomes feebler and 

 less resonant: when they are intermittent it is divided 

 into distinct syllables or set of syllables, which, as you say, 

 sometimes suggest the twitter of the kingbird. I have 

 frequently seen a woodcock, after flying some distance, 

 scale downward on set wings as if about to alight, and 

 then, apparently changing its intention, turn sharply 

 upward, at the same time resuming its flapping. In such 

 cases the whistling has invariably ceased during the inter- 

 val of sailing, ana quite as invariably has been renewed 



when the wing began to move again. I have never known 

 a woodcock to produce any form of whistling or twitter- 

 ing when its wings were at rest. 



These'facts impressed me long ago with the belief that 

 the sound, throughout all its changes or modulations, was 

 produced by the wings, but I did not feel that I had any 

 real proof on this point until after the experiences de- 

 scribed in my last letter. The sound made by the 

 wounded birds which I held by the bill was precisely the 

 same as that made by other wounded birds which I have 

 seen jump up ahead of a dog and attempt to fly in the 

 manner you have described. It does not seem possible 

 that I could have been mistaken as to the origin of the 

 whistling made by the former, while in respect to the 

 latter, I fail to understand why the injured wing may 

 not be moved with normal velocity and power. Your 

 objection that if so moved it "would have turned the 

 bird quite over," has no real force, for I have repeatedly 

 seen a wing-broken woodcock during a vain attempt to 

 fly with one wing actually turn quite over and land on 

 its back, with feet kicking in the air. Moreover, if the 

 sound is vocal, why is the woodcock invariably dumb 

 during the moult? As already stated, I have npver 

 known a bird which lacked the "whistling quills" to 

 make the least whistling or twittering, either during the 

 ordinary flight or after being wounded and when trying 

 to evade the dog. 



As to the Wilson's snipe, I cannot see why the fact that, 

 like many other birds, it utters when wounded a sound 

 which every one admits to be vocal, should furnish an 

 analogy bearing directly on the case of the woodcock. 

 Would it not be quite as logical to claim that because the 

 quacking of a flying mallard or black duck is unquestion- 

 ably vocal, the whistling sound supposed to be produced 

 by the golden eye's wings must be also vocal? 



Before concluding, however, I would say that, while I 

 believe most firmly that all of the various modifications 

 of whistling and twittering which the woodcock makes 

 while flying are produced by its narrow, stiffened, pri- 

 mary quills, I do not wish to be understood as denying 

 that at least some of these sounds may be vocal. It is so 

 easy to be mistaken about a comparatively simple thing, 

 and so difficult to settle positively a point as elusive as 

 that of the origin of the woodcock's whistling, that I am 

 perfectly willing to admit that the matter may be still an 

 open question which, it is to be hoped, the readers of 

 Forest and Stream will investigate further at every 

 possible opportunity. William Brewster. " 



Cambridge, Mass. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Your articles on the woodcock have interested me very 

 much. In your i?sue of Aug. 1 both yourself and Mr. 

 Wm. Brewster give opinions as to the manner of the 

 woodcock making the whistling noise. I quite agree 

 with Mr. Brewster that the noise is made by the wings, 

 although for many years I was a doubter, until the fol- 

 lowing occurrence settled it in my mind. One day quite 

 l ite in the autumn, having very slightly wounded'a full- 

 feathered, large fall bird, I retrieved it myself, not letting 

 the dog touch it. As I was holding it "by the bill my 

 companion said, "Hear it whistle." I immediately placed 

 the bill lengthwise, between my thumb and forefinger, 

 holding it tightly the whole length; whenever it fluttered, 

 which I let it do several times before killing, it made the 

 twittering whistle so peculiar to the woodcock, that 

 certainly was proof positive. As for the cause, I con- 

 sider it the same as the whirring sound of the quail and 

 grouse, viz., rapid motion of the wings, caused by fright. 

 Quite often after flushing a woodcock, and when it is 

 some distance away, when shot at and not killed, we 

 hear the same whistle, caused, no doubt, by the ad- 

 ditional fright at the sound of the gun or noise of the 

 shot passing near; not a poetical but certainly a practical 

 reason. I hope these articles will cause sportsmen to be 

 more observing, and that new facts as regards this very 

 eccentric bird may be brought to fight. W. 



Salem, Mass. 



Bird Notes prom Missouri. — The spring and summer 

 months with us here in northeast Missouri have been 

 pretty well, and this summer will be recorded as a period 

 of gentle and frequent showers. Until about June 10, 

 the temperature remained exceptionally low for this lati- 

 tude : and as a result, vegetation was delayed in growth. 

 Regardless of all these adverse agencies, the wildfowls 

 and birds appear to be prospering. All the migratory 

 birds arrived about the usual dates. As the forest area 

 here remains almost as extensive as ever, we have a great 

 variety of birds of beautiful plumage and sweet song. 

 A few of the strictly native Southern mockingbirds ven- 

 ture this far north to add their joyful notes to the con- 

 gregation of musical voices. Our best singer, I think, is 

 the brown thrush or common mockingbird, which re- 

 tains its rank of being the bird par excellence for clear- 

 ness of notes and variety of song. The catbird and even 

 the much praised Southern mockingbird both fall far 

 below the thrush in point of distinctness and excellence 

 of song. Some writers assume that the thrush's power of 

 mimicry is acquired, yet this is not w-ell established. — 

 Jasper Blines. 



Nests op the Sunfish.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I have read with much interest the article in your 

 paper in regard to " Nest Building of the Sunfish.'" I 

 have examined the so-called "nests" several times and 

 have lifted the sand and gravel carefully out of the bot- 

 tom, but have never found any *>pawn, although the fish 

 were in the nests when I went to examine them and 

 would return to them shortly after I left and level the 

 bottom again with a> current or water from their tails. 

 The nests I have chiefly examined were in a mill-pond. 

 There were more nests made by perch (yellow belly) 

 than by sunfish. I also found chub in these nests, but 

 whether they made them or not I do know: but if I 

 dropped any pebbles in their nests they also would flirt 

 them out with water or. if too heavy, the water would 

 cut the sand from under the pebbles so that they would 

 sink low enough not to trouble the fish. I have also 

 found these nests made by perch on the flats of a tide 

 water river, where they were left dry every low water. 

 — Pi. F. R. (King William County, Va.) 



Names and Portraits op Birds, by Gurdon Trumbull. A 

 book particularly interesting to gunners, for oy its use they can 

 identify without question all the American game birds which 

 tney may kill. Cloth, W pages, price $2.50. For sale by Forest 

 and Stream. 



