104 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 27, 1890. 



it before. They are very restless little fellows, continu 

 ally darting from tree to tree, picking at everything they 

 see, uttering at intervals a loud whistle, "petoP' which 

 can be heard a long distance. They breed here. T have 

 always seen them while woodcock shooting in July in 

 the dark woods, where the elm, black ash and hickory 

 raise their great branches to the sky, almost hiding the 

 sun from the earth. 



Dec. 4, 1878, I shot seven whitewing crossbills (Loxia 

 leucophera). I saw them feeding upon weeds, and they 

 were so tame that I could almost take them with the 

 hand. After shooting at them, they would fly to a tree 

 or a weed near by and continue their search for seeds as 

 if nothing had happened. This allowed me to kill them 

 all without once moving from my tracks. I have re- 

 marked this same tameness in nearly all rare birds that I 

 have seen. This species is reported as being quite numer- 

 ous in the vicinity of Cincinnati, 0., in the winter of 

 1868-9. 



A man recently brought me a barn owl (Strix flammed 

 var. americana), which he shot on the lake shore, near 

 Rocky River, in the summer of '87. This is the first 

 recorded occurrence of this species in northern Ohio. 



Lake wood, Ohio. A. Hall. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



To my notes on this subject printed in your issue of 

 Feb. 6 I can now add the following: 



On Jan. 31 a flock of eight evening grosbeaks appeared 

 at Boxford, Essex county, Massachusetts, where they re- 

 mained at least five days, frequenting cultivated grounds 

 about houses in the heart of the village, and attracting 

 general attention and interest by their familiarity and 

 striking form and coloring. They were seen occasionally 

 in Norway spruces, frequently in maples and other de- 

 ciduous trees, and very often on the ground where they 

 seemed to find an abundance of food of some kind, prob- 

 ably seeds. Rev. Mr. Coggin, about whose house they re- 

 mained much of the time, thinks they also "ate grass," and 

 he observed them "in a tree on which old crabapples hung," 

 but did not actually see them feeding on the apples. 

 Their usual call note was a "loud, quick whistle as of the 

 syllable pee-ule, uttered as if in alarm." When several 

 were together they also made "a low, sociable peeping." 

 There was only a single full-plumaged male in the flock, 

 all the others being either females or young birds. One 

 which was shot and examined proved to be in good con- 

 dition with "flakes of greenish fat" about the neck. After 

 the departure of this flock none were observed in Boxford 

 until the 14th or loth of February, when two were seen 

 and others heard calling. On the 18th two adult males 

 were killed. These must have been new corners foi> as 

 already stated, the flock which arrived in January con- 

 tained only one'bird obviously of this sex. I am indebted 

 to the Rev. William P. Alcott, of Boxford, for the above 

 facts, some of which were published in a note in the 

 Salem Gazette of Feb. 7, the others kindly communicated 

 to me by letter by Mr. Alcott. 



On Feb. 11 three of these grosbeaks were shot by Mr. 

 R. F. Lewis at Crescent Beach, a station of the Revere 

 Beach & Lynn Railroad, near the southern extremity of 

 Revere Beach in Suffolk county, Massachusetts. I saw 

 these birds in the flesh next day at Messrs. Goodale & 

 Frazar's, and afterward secured them for my collection. 

 One is a male in fine plumage, the other two are females. 

 Mr. Goodale, who skinned them, found their gullets 

 filled with what he took to be maple buds. Mr. Lewis 

 writes me that he first saw them in a thicket of sumacs, 

 where they were flitting restlessly from bush to bush. 

 The male then descended to the ground and hopped about 

 for a minute or two, apparently "picking at the grass." 

 After he was shot the females flew into a cherry tree and 

 began calling loudly until they also were killed. Mr. 

 Lewis coidd find no others in the vicinity. The place 

 where the birds were Jaken is in the middle of a dense 

 settlement of small, cheap houses, huddled closely to- 

 gether along narrow streets, bordered by rows of young 

 poplars and other deciduous trees, with a few wild or 

 cultivated shrubs in the occasional vacant lots or cramped 

 little gardens behind the houses. 



Concerning my previous record of the Seabrook, N. H., 

 specimen, Mr. Eaton has very kindly sent me the follow- 

 ing corrections: "I received the bird Jan. 9, as reported, 

 but it had lain around several days before I got it. Be- 

 ing confident that it antedated the Milford specimen. I 

 have since called on Mr. Boyd and ascertained that it 

 was killed five or six days before I received it. I have 

 also learned that it w r as not alone, as I at first wrote you, 

 but, on the contrary, was accompanied by another bird 

 of the same species, the sex of which Mr. Boyd is not cer- 

 tain about." From this it appears that the date of cap- 

 ture of this specimen should have been given as Feb. 3 or 

 4 instead of 9, and the name of its captor as Mr. Boyd 

 instead of "Mr. Brooks." The latter mistake was due 

 wholly to my own carelessness, for on referring to Mr. 

 Eaton's first letter I find that the name is there written 

 clearly and correctly. 



In my previous article on these grosbeaks I said some- 

 thing about certain supposed peculiarities of coloring in 

 some of the New England specimens. Since then I have 

 brought together a large series of western skins and added 

 five birds to my New England series. Upon golug over 

 this material with some care, I fail to find any constant 

 differences between the New England birds and those from 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota. William Brewster. 



Cambbidge, Mass. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I am very much interested in the notes published in 

 Forest and Stream on the occurrence of the evening 

 grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus). My attention has 

 been drawn to its occurrence here by Mr, Caulfield, taxi- 

 dermist. One specimen was shot in this city the latter 

 end of last month, and four were shot at Laprairie on the 

 south side of St. Lawrence River, about nine miles above 

 Montreal, last week. I saw two of these birds after they 

 were stuffed. This is the first record of their occurrence 

 in this district. Ernest D. Wintle. 



Montreal, Fe b. 20. 



Agassiz Association,— A convention of the Agassiz 

 Association will be held in New York city, Feb. 27, 28 and 

 March 1, under the auspices of the New York City As- 

 sembly and the New Jersey State Assembly. Members 

 of the Association who expect to attend the convention 

 are requested to send their names to the Committee on 

 Agassiz Convention, New York University, New York 

 city. 



NOTES OF SPRING. 



ON Feb. 8 this locality was visited by a large flight of 

 the common redpoll. They were in very large flocks, 

 and accompanied a snow storm which swept through the 

 Chemung Valley on this date. I had about a dozen fine 

 specimens brought to me by a young man who fired into 

 a flock that was feeding near the house. This first called 

 my attention to them, and on going out I was surprised 

 to find them all over. A very few snowflakes were also 

 seen among some of the flocks. Yesterday, while on my 

 way to church, i saw a red and buff -shouldered blackbird, 

 He was all alone in the top of a dead tree, and his notes 

 reminded one of spring. He looked very lonesome. 

 Elmiba, N. Y., Feb. 10. E. A. S. 



Saw the first bluebird to-day. Last week saw a logger- 

 headed shrike capture a field mouse. Albert Hall. 

 Lake Wood, O., Feb. 11. 



This week I have seen a brown thrush and a flock of 

 yellow-legs. Woodticks have made their appearance, and 

 I have picked several off the dogs. B. S. T. 



West Yaumouth, Mass., Feb. 14. 



Cuff Swallow Nesting in December.— We are in- 

 debted to Dr. B. H. Warren, State Ornithologist of Penn- 

 sylvania, for the following interesting letter relative to 

 nest building of the cliff swallow (Petroehelidon lunif rons) 

 in Pennsylvania in December: "New Lexington, Pa., 

 Jan. 1, 1890.—* * * I wrote you on the 28th idt. that 

 it was reported to me that the cliff swallows were build- 

 ing at a farmer's barn some six miles away. I investi- 

 gated the matter by going there myself to see if the report 

 was correct. I saw. the nest, but the swallows had gone 

 on last Saturday, probably driven away by the sparrows. 

 The farmer, John Shaff, and his daughter told me that 

 they first noticed the birds on the 23d of December, and 

 they were already building. They commenced to build 

 on the foundation of old nests. They had one nest com- 

 pleted and two others partly done. During all last week 

 the temperature never ranged below 40° nor above 65°, 

 In an open winter like this one it may not be unusual, in 

 some parts of the State, for swallows to make their ap- 

 pearance in midwinter; but, as far as I can learn, they 

 were never seen here before iu December. You state in 

 your 'Report' that you have never seen retort-shaped 

 swallows' nests. I hare often seen nests with the open- 

 ing from 3 to Sin. long. Sometimes this neck is fastened 

 to the ceiling in a horizontal line, and at other Jimes it is 

 curved slightly downward.— H. D. Moore, M.D," 



Fool of the Golden-eyed Duck,— We are indebted 

 to Dr. B. H, Warren, State Ornithologist of Pennsylvania, 

 for the opportunity to determine one of the food resources 

 of the golden-eyed duck {Glaucionetta elangula ameri- 

 cana). On the 18th of January Dr. Warren bought an 

 adult male of this species in a market at Philadelphia, 

 Pa., and, on the following day, forwarded to us the con- 

 tents of its crop and gizzard. He wrote that the " small 

 rounded and egg-shaped bodies when the bird was opened 

 seemed to be held together by a greenish colored mem- 

 brane." The bird was shot on the Susquehanna River in 

 the neighborhood of Port Deposit. Dr. A. K. Fisher, of 

 the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, submitted the food materials 

 to one of the botanists of the Department and learned 

 that they were composed of tubers from the subterranean 

 stems of Chara. The circular tubers are scarcely one- 

 eighth of an inch in diameter and consist of a thin aud 

 brittle shell inclosing a snow white mass of starchy crys- 



§ug mid 



" FOREST AND STREAM " GUN TESTS. 



THE following guns have been tested at the Forest And 

 Stream Range, and reported upon in the issues named. 

 Copies of any date will be sent on receipt of price, ten cents: 

 Colt 12, July 25. Pabkeb 12, hammeiiess, June . 



Colt 10 and 12, Oct. 24. Remington 1H, May 30. 



Folsom 10 and 12, .Sept. 26. Remington 12, Dec. f>. 

 Feancotte 12, Dec. 12. Remington 10, Dec. 26. 



Gbeener 13. Aug. 1. Scott 10, Sept. 5. 



Greener 10. Sept. 12, Sept. in. L. C. Smith 12, Oct. 10. 

 Holms 10, Nov. 7. Wimchesteb 10 and Li, Oct. 3. 



Parkeb 10, hammer, June 6. 



A QUAIL HUNT IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



IT was quite late in the fall when Ed. broached the sub- 

 ject of a Southern quail-shooting trip. However, a 

 orotracted and wearisome trial, a generally fagged-out 

 feeling, and the natural desire of one whose quail shoot- 

 ing has been hitherto confined to the uncertain hunting- 

 grounds adjacent to New York, to see what good shoot- 

 ing really was, readily decided us to acquiesce in the 

 proposition ; so a few afternoons later the Southern Ex- 

 press on leaving Jersey City had aboard, among various 

 other things, the writer, Ed. (an excellent shot and an. 

 enthusiastic sportsman), our two pointers Graph and 

 Staunch, and the usual accessories to a shooting trip. A 

 night and a day's ride found us safely ensconced in the 

 farmhouse which was to form the base of operations 

 against the North Carolina quail, with everything in 

 readiness for the shooting which we hoped to commence 

 early the next morning. 



Wright, the colored boy, under whose tender care we 

 were to put ourselves for the day, so far as our convey- 

 ance and the place of our shooting were concerned, was 

 late in coming. He had promised faithfully to be at the 

 house "befo' sun up." but it was very nearly 8 o'clock 

 when Sam Hinson's while horse Joe, his two-seated 

 spring-wagon (both taxed for the occasion) and the grin- 

 ning features of Wright made their appearance, and the 

 expedition got under way. 



The morning was cool, bright and clear, our spirits 

 ardent and our enthusiasm and expectations of a good 

 day's sport unbounded. The drive occupied about an 

 hour and a half, and embraced an interview with oue 

 Coleman, the owner of the first plantation over which we 

 expected to shoot. His land was "posted," and birds 



were said to be very thick upon it, but it was necessary 

 to obtain permission to hunt there. We found Mr. Cole- 

 man, who was a kindly -looking and courteous Southerner, 

 in the woods felling a mighty pine. Ed suggested that 

 we open diplomatic negotiations with him. Shortly prior 

 to our visit to this section, one Shelly, a native of the 

 North, had been arrested for trespassing upon the land of 

 Mr. Coleman's next neighbor and we did not know just 

 how Coleman felt on the matter of Shelly. We ap- 

 proached the wood-cutter, with a smile and a cheerful 

 "Good morning," but not without certain misgivings as 

 to what position we ought to take in reference to Shelly. 

 We told Mr. Coleman we were from the North, and should 

 like to hunt over his property if he had no objections. 

 He inquired whether we were from New Jersey. We 

 smelled a Shelly rat and said, "Oh, no, we were not from 

 New Jersey, we were from New Sort.*' He said he did 

 not mean any offense, but was our name Shelly? No, not 

 "by any means, our name was anything but Shell v: in 

 fact, we were totally unacquainted with Mr. Shelly, 

 never having met him in our lives. Indeed we were fast 

 approaching a state of reckless reiteration in our efforts 

 to get further and further away from any association 

 with Shelly, when we were pulled up short, Mr. Coleman 

 remarking that whether we knew him or not, Shelly was 

 a fine fellow, that he had been down there to shoot a 

 1 ittle while before and had treated him "real handsomely," 

 that he had sent him a nice present upon his return home, 

 and that as Shelly was a "somewhat red complected man" 

 (as he put it), he had suspected us of being at least his 

 brother. We congratulated ourselves upon our narrow 

 escape, obtained the required permission, and proceeded 

 on our way. 



Reaching a turn of the road Wright thought that would 

 be a good spot for him to bivouac while we were hunt- 

 ing, and we thought the adjoining field a likely place to 

 find birds, for it was large and consisted partly of a thick 

 growth of ragweed, partly of an old corn patch, and 

 partly of whiter grain, one end of the tract being covered 

 with a tall growth of broom sedge, interspersed with 

 young pine trees; so donning our shooting coats and tak- 

 ing an ample supply of shells, we speedily made ready 

 for the start, as the morning was now pretty well ad- 

 vanced and we felt that the sooner we made a beginning 

 the better. Our dogs were in splendid condition, and as 

 they impatiently yawned and stretched while waiting 

 for the signal to start, their bright eyes and eager manner 

 formed a fit corollary to our enthusiasm. We had barely 

 proceeded 20yds. from the fence before Graph began to 

 make game. "Look out," said Ed., "there are birds near 

 by," and just as he spoke Staunch, who was a little to the 

 right of Graph, drew up in a stiff and determined point, 

 Graph backing him, the moment afterward, most hand- 

 somely. Congratulating ourselves upon our luck, we 

 walked slowly in, one on each side of the dogs, but no 

 quail a,rose. We were not more than loft, apart and it 

 seemed hardly possible that we could have passed the 

 birds. But such was the fact, for on retracing our steps 

 and moving a little nearer one another, up jumped the 

 covey, and a moment afterward four reports rang out, 

 and there were three less live quail in North Carolina 

 than there had been a few minutes before. The re- 

 mainder of the bevy scattered in the adjoining woods, 

 where there was very little cover and where they lay 

 very poorly to the dogs Nevertheless, we got three out 

 of five that were started, one being a wing-tipped bird, 

 which gave us a pretty chase, and which, but for the 

 absence of thickets and briers, would probably never 

 have been bagged. The pursuit of these birds took us in 

 a semi-circular course through the woods, aud we entered 

 the field again at its lower end. On looking over the 

 ground we got an idea that the tall broom sedge and 

 young pines would offer a pretty good cover for another 

 covey, should there happen to be two in the same field; 

 and sure enough, in beating through it we flushed a covey 

 of about twelve well growu and strong birds that whirred 

 oft' like so many feathered bullets. The dogs, being in 

 the adjoining field, had failed to scent them, and we 

 walked right into the midst of them, and as they rose on 

 all sides of us we must confess to having our nerves some- 

 what shaken. However, we managed to knock one with 

 the second barrel and marked the rest down on a side 

 hill, which was scantily covered with young oak trees 

 and small pines, together with a good deal of underbrush. 



The flock flew across the railroad, and as we were 

 watching them we noticed four or five colored boys walk- 

 ing down the track. Two of them had guns, the others 

 were apparently unarmed, and they had half a dozen 

 dogs of as many breeds and colors. Evidently they were 

 rabbit hunters. A North Carolina negro is a born rabbit 

 hunter. A dozen or more of them will get together with 

 possibly two or three guns among them and a horde of 

 dogs of all kinds. Then they will have a rabbit hunt. 

 Just as soon as a cottontail is started every nigger sets up 

 the most unearthly yell that he can evolve from his inner 

 cussedness, and away go the dogs and men and boys after 

 the unfortunate rabbit, with perhaps two or three scat- 

 tering shots to help swell the noise. We were walking 

 to the hillside, where the second covey had scattered, 

 when up jumped a rabbit almost under our feet, and heels 

 over head he went.with our first barrel, but jumping up 

 again began to dodge through the brush. We sent an- 

 other ounce of shot after him: still he went on, strug- 

 gling over the bank right in front of the band of negroes, 

 who from their point of vantage on the railroad em- 

 bankment had watched the whole scene. Of course they 

 were highly delighted, and their remarks were anything 

 but complimentary to our skill; but we didn't say a word— 

 at least not loud. However, a moment afterward a shout 

 of joy went up as one of the rabbit hunters' dogs trotted 

 in with the dead rabbit in his mouth. Upon our claim- 

 ing the game it was handed over, and the gift of a ten- 

 cent piece sent off the colored contingent with many 

 grins of delight. 



In a few minutes we reached the sidehill and Graph 

 pointed right at the edge of the brush; a moment after- 

 ward two buds shot off across the field; the first one 

 dropped to Ed's gun, and the second, after a shot from 

 our hammerless, struggled on to the edge of the adjoin- 

 ing woods, where it fell, but was never gathered, and 

 joined the great army of lost birds. A moment after 

 another was flushed and wing-tipped, and after a hurried 

 search given up; but a hundred yards further on Graph 

 pointed again, and this time it was our wounded quail. 

 Three or four snap shots were made in the thicket, and 

 then, just as we were passing through a small piece of 

 pine woods, and within a stone's throw of a farmhouse. 



