Aug. 22, 1889. | 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



88 



arid brown wastes of Arizona is a beautiful Bight. 

 There are sometimes thirty birds together, and as they 

 step along, their heads slightly thrown forward and their 

 crests erect, they are unsurpassed by any of our game 

 birds for beauty and neatness. Their colors are clean and 

 clear; in the male this is especially so; their crest is a 

 beautiful affair, a jet-black, club-shaped, tight bunch of 

 feathers about an inch and a half long. 



The quail spend the day upon the foothills feeding, 

 and just at dusk come down to the stream which drains 

 the valley, to drink. After drinking they settle in the 

 willows along the banks for the night: while thus set- 

 tling they constantly call to each other in their sweet, 

 plaintive' notes. In' their courtships and pairings they 

 are very interesting, and make a source of endless de- 

 light to a lover of natural history. At this time the 

 cock brings himself into prominence: and his challcng- 

 ings and struttings, his fights and victories, his billings 

 and cooings, are pleasing studies of social bird life, to be 

 seen on the arid desert, on the mountain or in the canon, 

 and in the verdant river bottoms. 



Their food consists principally. I judge, of the seeds of 

 the scanty herbage. It seems sometimes the birds must 

 live very hungry, the grasses and weeds are so scanty. 

 Probably they consume many insects though , and gain a 

 good sustenance from these. Sometimes they make 

 havoc in the crop3 of the ranchers. One planter dis- 

 gusted me by telling me how he succeeded in poisoning 

 several hundred quail. 



Many of the teamsters in Arizona carry shotguns be- 

 sides their usual weapon and kill many quail. The quail 

 gather about the camping ground to get the grain left 

 and dropped by the stock, and the "bull-whacker'* or 

 "mule-skinner" makes a pot shot into the flock of feed- 

 ing birds, killing twelve or twenty. 



But the little" bird, although nature and man seem 

 against him, flourishes and is happy, helping to make a 

 rather dark place brighter. T. W. B, 



New ITaven. 



Skuisks on Dress Pabadk.— Chicago, 111., Aug. 19. — 

 A friend in Wisconsin tells me of an amusing incident he 

 noticed in the woods up there. Himself and a companion 

 were riding along together, when there suddenly siepped 

 into the road ahead of them a little army of skunks— one 

 old skunk and five half-grown kittens. These seemed 

 perfectly fearless, and halting by the wayside, the gen- 

 tleman's companion began firing at them with a six- 

 shooter, although he did not hit any of them. At the 

 sound of eveiy shot, the skunks, which had marshaled 

 themselves into perfect line, threw up their tails in per- 

 fect unison, as straight and stiff as a ramrod, above their 

 backs, making no further hostile demonstration, and 

 simply standing at a ready until their fear had partly 

 subsided. They repeated this maneuver a dozen times, 

 and my informant says the total effect was funny in the 

 extreme.— E. Hough. 



Grouse Eeared in Confinement. — A correspondent of 

 the Truro, Nova Scotia, Sun says that the young par- 

 tridges hatched on the farm of Mr. Henry Hills, of Lower 

 Stewiacke, N. S., were not hatched under a common hen; 

 on the contrary, they were hatched from eggs laid by a 

 tamed partridge, a pair of which Mr. Hills has had in his 

 possession for five years. The mere act of taking a nest 

 full of eggs home and hatching them under a hen does 

 not appear a very extraordinary feat. But the fact that 

 Mr. Hills has held these wild birds in captivity for five 

 years, and has at last succeeded in raising from them a 

 brood of young birds, is what we call an extraordinary 

 feat, and is, we believe the first instance of the kind ever 

 accomplished. Another very difficult feature in Mi - . 

 Hills's achievement is the fact that his birds were cap- 

 tured when fully fledged. 



An English Starling in Maine.— Calais, Me., Aug. 14. 

 — A boy has sent me an English starling shot here with 

 some redwings. I saw some imported ones were let out 

 at Central Park last spring. This may be one of them 

 come north.— Ceo. A. BoarduaN, 



\mne J?## mid %m\. 



AN OUTING IN WYOMING. 



(Concluded from Page 66.) 



17*1 KID AY mornin g, bright and early, we were up and had 

 . breakfast out of the way. Cook and Jack started out 

 together, and Jim and I, Crane said he would hunt 

 around camp. We hunted north of camp for some time, 

 but saw nothing. My boots were galling my ankles in a 

 horrible manner, and I gave up and went to camp, where 

 I found Crane. We built up a big fire, took the old bake 

 kettle and pot-roasted several rump roasts of antelope, 

 and stayed at camp the rest of the day. Jim came in first 

 and reported a small blacktail doe killed as the result of 

 his day'd shooting. Jack and Cook came in shortly after: 

 each ha J killed a fine buck, which they had dressed and 

 hung u; ; they were ravenously hungry. 



Satun t.j y I had been studying what I could wear on my 

 feet thi.i would not murder me, I finally put on five 

 pairs of socks with my rubber overshoes over them, tied 

 my canvas pants tight under the hollow of my feet, and 

 was all right. They were soft, warm and light. I had 

 hit it. All the other boys took the horses and went out 

 to bring in the three deer killed yesterday. I went east 

 of the camp to the head of a canon, and hunted down a 

 way until I struck a track that was coming toward me. 

 I turned on the track and followed it back up the side of 

 the canon, across the top of the mountain to near camp, 

 down into another canon, where the one I was following 

 joined a band of others. I followed them for a while until I 

 came across what I thought were elk tracks. I left the deer 

 tracks and followed them. I had never seen an elk*hor 

 an elk track. Some one had told me that they looked 

 like cattle tracks, only more pointed. This answered the 

 description of the track I was on, so I stuck to them until 

 I found out they were cattle tracks. I never realized the 

 poverty of the English language as I did then. I struck 

 off across to where I left the deer tracks, and was work- 

 ing carefully along up a small canon that branched off 

 from the main one, when I saw start out from under a 

 cedar tree five does and a splendid buck; they walked 

 along a few steps and stopped to look at me. I guessed 



the distance at 250yds., raised my sights, up with old 

 reliable, sighted for his shoulder and cut loose. He was 

 standing on a very steep side hill, and at the crack of the 

 rifle he staggered down the hill sideways several feet, 

 but did not fall. The others ran to the top of the 

 gulley and stopped; he followed them. I had shot him 

 with an explosive bullet, so I thought he was safe; and I 

 shot again at one of the others as soon as I could load. 

 When I shot the second time he ran off to the right be- 

 hind a large rock: the others ran straight over the hill 

 out of sight. I hurried up to where I had seen him last, 

 took his track and followed it about 40yds. and found 

 him. He was down, but looked as if he 'had lain down 

 to rest. His eyes were open and looked as bright as 

 could be. I did not know but he was laying for 

 me, and as I had no fancy for a rough and tumble fight 

 with a wounded buck that would weigh two hundred 

 and fifty pounds, I loosed the safety catch to my rifle, 

 and with the gun loaded in both hands, went up near 

 enough and gave him a punch with the muzzle, but he 

 was dead. To say that I was pleased would not half tell 

 it: it was the first deer that I had ever killed to be sure 

 of, I had shot at deer w ith others and some one had 

 killed them, but no one knew who; this one was my own. 

 Was not he a beauty:' He had a, hue set of antlers. I 

 dressed him and founa the bullet had struck him back of 

 the shoulders, too high for the heart; it had exploded 

 and had cut the wind pipe and forward part of the lungs 

 into hash; the base of the bullet had gone out the other 

 side. Notwithstanding this terrible wound he had been 

 on his feet in sight for as much as thirty seconds, and 

 had run as much as 60yds., part of the way up a hill that 

 was at least 45 degrees elevation. I might as well have 

 tried to hang up a horse alone, so I dragged him upon a 

 rock, tied my handkerchief to his antlers to scare away 

 any varmint, and put out on the tracks of the others. I 

 had followed them about a half mile when I came on to 

 the carcass of a bull elk that had been killed probably 

 the fall before. The horns were 3ft. 7in. long, and 3ft. 

 2 in. between the tips, and were large and as even as they 

 could be. I twisted off the head and carried it on top of 

 a hill so I could find it again and went on. I followed 

 the tracks until they scattered near our camp, and con- 

 cluded to leave them and go to camp, get a pony and 

 some help and bring in my deer. 



When I got to camp I found two nice bucks and a doe 

 hanging on a tree near the tent; the boys had brought 

 in the game killed the day before and had gone out 

 again. Crane, Jack and Cook had taken the horses and 

 wagon when they went after their game, and Jim had 

 taken the white pony and gone after his doe alone. 

 About the time the other boys got their bucks loaded up 

 and were starting for camp. Jim put in an appearance 

 and said he had been having a small-sized circus with 

 the pony, for when he attempted to blindfold her to put 

 the doe on her back, she yanked him all over that part 

 of the mountain until she broke the bridle and then lit 

 out in the direction of camp. They drove over to where 

 Jim's doe was, put it in the wagon, and Crane drove to 

 camp while the others hunted for more. After getting 

 the cteer into camp Crane went off west of camp and saw 

 the same band that I got my buck out of, but did not get 

 a shot. I got me something to eat and then went back 

 and brought in the elk head I had found. By that time 

 Crane had returned, but it was too late to go after my 

 deer, so we went to getting supper. Jim came in about 

 dark and reported another doe and a coyote killed; Cook 

 and Jack came in soon after, had seen four deer and 

 had shot at them, but got nothing. We had antelope 

 soup for supper, and any one who says it is not good 

 never tried it after tramping all day. After supper we 

 skinned out the heads of the deer killed yesterday ready 

 to mount. 



Next morning Cook and Jack started off east of camp 

 and hunted all day. Cook killed a small doe and they 

 dressed and hung it up on a tree, wounded another and 

 followed it nearly to camp, but it was getting dark and 

 they left it until morning. Jim and I had taken the 

 bio ,vn pony and gone out and got tne deer he had killed 

 the day before. I brought it into camp and he hunted. 

 Crane and I hung Jim's doe up with the rest and then 

 took both ponies and went after my buck, I rode that 

 pony over places I would have been afraid to go afoot; 

 he was slow, but sure. When we got near the dead deer 

 I saw a bobcat that had been feeding on the entrails run 

 off over the hills; he was out of sight before I could dis- 

 mount and shoot at him; he had killed one magpie and 

 wounded another that 1 caught and took to camp. We 

 loaded my buck on to the brown pony and went to camp. 

 I worked a while cleaning my elk head, when Jim came 

 in and reported a big buck killed in the same canon that 

 I had killed mine in, so Jim, Crane and I took both 

 ponies and went out after it. Jim with his rifle went 

 ahead, Crane and I rode the ponies. It was near sun- 

 down and we were about half a mile from camp, when 

 Crane pointed off to the west and exclaimed: "Great 

 Scott! look at that elk; yes, and there are two more." 

 And sure enough, on top of a ridge clearly outlined 

 against the sky were three animals, one feeding and the 

 other two walking around; they looked about the size of 

 big cows. Crane told me to stay and watch them and 

 he would hurry on after Jim and get him to come back 

 with his rifle. Oh, how we regretted leaving our guns 

 in cam]). I watched them for about fifteen minutes, 

 when, as Jim and Crane did not come back, I went on 

 and found them at work on the buck, getting him ready 

 to pack. On the way back, when near where we saw 

 the elk, Jim pointed up on to the ridge and said: "Are 

 those your elk? Well, you are dandies. They are nothing 

 but blacktail does." He was right; they did not look to 

 be a quarter as large, owing, I suppose, to the difference 

 m the light. However, he blazed away at them three 

 times before they stirred, and then they walked over the 

 ridge out of sight. 



We had now six fine deer hanging on the trees around 

 the tent, and the ridge pole of the tent well garnished 

 with antelope venison that we were jerking. In his 

 rambles to-day, Jim found a dead cow elk that Jack 

 wounded three weeks ago to-day, but could not find; also 

 an immense buffalo bull that had been killed some 

 months before. They had skinned out the hindquarters 

 and left the rest, not even taking the hide; the horns 

 were beauties, and Jim managed to get them off and 

 brought them in. 



Monday morning Jim and I were both lame from 

 tramping and climbing, and thought we would make a 

 lazy hunt that day; so we went out to where we had 



seen the does the night before. We could see by the 

 tracks that there was a regular crossing there, so we fixed 

 ourselves comfortably and watched for several hours, but 

 saw nothing. Then we played boy for an hour, rolling 

 rocks from the ridge down into the canon. I then pro- 

 posed that we work across to where I had killed my deer, 

 and see if we could see any deer and perhaps get a shot 

 at my bobcat. We found the cat back there after the rest of 

 the entrails; but he heard us before we got in sight of 

 him, and had started for some more retired place. We 

 both shot at him and made the stones and gravel fly just 

 behind him, and from the way he made tracks he evi- 

 dently thought there was no place like home. We kept 

 on up the side of the mountain, and while passing through 

 a large clump of cedars jumped a fine doe not 30yds. 

 from us, that ran across in front of where we were. Both 

 shot and missed her. She ran off to the right along the 

 side of the mountain among the cedars; we followed her 

 tracks for about 60yds., to where she had stopped to look 

 at us. We got a glimpse of her as she dashed down the 

 hill, and Jim said she would come out on a naked knoll 

 about 100yds. distant. Sure enough, the next instant she 

 ran up to the top of the knoll and stopped. We both 

 fired and down she went, dead as a stone. As it was but 

 about half a mile to camp, we carried her in and hung 

 her up with the rest. 



Cook and Jack went out this morning after the doe 

 they had hung up yesterday. Cook had left his hand- 

 kerchief tied to the carcass to scare away any prowlers. 

 He found his game about half eaten up by a couple of 

 bobcats, and his handkerchief the worse for it. Thev 

 sent the remnants to camp by Crane, and went to look 

 for the cats who had mortally insulted Cook. They 

 hunted all day and returned to camp at dark with noth- 

 ing. Tuesday morning Jack got up at daylight and went 

 out before breakfast, it was windy and looked like a 

 storm. We had just finished breakfast when Jack came 

 in and said he had killed a nice buck and doe. All hands 

 except myself took the horses and wagon and went after 

 them. We were busy nearly all day getting our meat 

 and heads ready to take home. We had killed ten deer 

 in all, five large bucks, and five does, and had them 

 hanging on trees around the tent. It was a sight that 

 would have delighted any sportsman. I would have 

 given anything for a goo'd photograph of camp as it 

 looked when we commenced to cut up our deer, I tried 

 to make a pencil sketch of it, but it was not a brilliant 

 success, but afforded lots of fun for the hoys. Cook and 

 Jack came in about 4 o'clock, Jack had killed a badger; 

 he got something to eat and then went out again; he 

 wanted a buck's head for some friend of his to mount, 

 the two he had already killed were for Crane, and his 

 partner Moffit. He came in at dark but had nothing. 



Wednesday morning Jack was up and out by daylight. 

 We struck the tent, packed the wagon and got ready to 

 start by the time Jack came in sight. He had seen noth- 

 ing. We then pulled for Crane's camp, saw lots of ante- 

 lope on the way but killed none. Made Crane's camp in 

 time to get the tent up and make things snug for the 

 night . Thursday some of Crane's men took the team and 

 went after wood, and we loafed around camp, and to- 

 ward night went out to look for antelope. Jim was the 

 only one that had any luck. He killed one, and as it was 

 near the road we would travel the next day, he left it 

 where he shot it. Friday morning we loaded our traps 

 into the wagon, bade good-bye to Jack and the rest of the 

 men, and started for Casper. Picking up the antelope 

 Jim had killed, we got to the derrick m time for dinner, 

 and there heard how the Presidential election had gone. 

 We determined to make Casper that night if possible. 

 We saw a large oil spring by the side of the road that 

 was a curiosity to those of us who had never seen any- 

 thing of the kind before. When we had come up the 

 road the boys on the train did everything they could to 

 make us comfortable, so when we stopped, at the derrick 

 for dinner we skinned the antelope, cut it in quarters and 

 put it in a gunny sack, and when we got to Casper in the 

 evening and found the train standing on the track, we 

 rapped on the door of the luggage car, and when tney 

 opened it we bundled the sack of meat into the car and 

 told them to divide it to suit themselves. We left Casper 

 at 6 o'clock the next morning and arrived in Blair Sun- 

 day evening, having been gone just two weeks. Taking 

 everything into consideration it was the pleasantest trip 

 I ever took. We had good weather, a pleasant company; 

 there was not a crossword spoken on the trip, no one was 

 hurt, we got all the game we wanted and reached home 

 wlien we intended to. Jim, who is a taxidermist of no 

 mean ability, has been with me for some days, and ha.s 

 our bucks' heads mounted in fine shape. Mine is hang- 

 ing in the room where I am writing this, and as he looks 

 down at me it seems as if I could hear him say, "It is all 

 right, old man, but if we were to try this thing over 

 again you would not get me so easy." 



Dr. E. A. Palmer. 



Blaib, Nebraska. 



A Modern Fable. — One day a city snap shot went out 

 hunting, he carried an improved breechloading shotgun, 

 and his special boast was that he never shot either bird or 

 animal without giving it a fair chance for its life. His 

 sentiments were favorable to the protection of all game 

 birds and birds of song and beautiful plumage. At least 

 this was his conviction on the subject when he wasn't 

 out hunting. After spending most of the afternoon in a 

 pretty good run of luck, he found that his game pouch 

 contained 8 red birds, 13 doves, 2 grouse, 6 quail and 1 

 squirrel. "This will do," he said, and then he started to 

 cross a field, homeward bound. Presently up flew two 

 quail, one of which soon fell a victim to the destructive 

 aim of the snap shot. The other bird, being closely pur- 

 sued by a hungry duck hawk which happened to be near, 

 sought safety in some tall grass, but was seized by the 

 greedy bird of prey. Just then there was another report 

 from the sportsman's gun and the hawk with its prospec- 

 tive dinner fell to the earth. In the evening, after the 

 fly-shot had partaken of a toothsome supper of game 

 birds, and had related his adventures in flowery adjec- 

 tives, he sat down and wrote for a high class paper an 

 article entitled: "Hawks, the Great Destroyers of our 

 Game Birds."— Jasper Blines. 



Forest and Stjream, Bos 2,832, N. Y. city, Las descriptive illus- 

 trated circulars of W. B. Leffin^well's book, " Wild Fowl Shoot- 

 ing," which will be mailed free on request. The book is pro- 

 nounced by "Nanit," "GHoan," "Dick Swiveller," "Sybtllene" and 

 other competent authorities to be the beBt treatise on the subject 

 extant,. 



