June 19, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



431 



ihOuting out'the warriors' names. Then was there great 

 joy, and to their relations the warriors gave many horses, 

 and to those who had lost relatives by death from the 

 jnerny a scalp was given; and they danced the scalp 

 dance and were comforted. J. W. Scholtz. 



HABITS OF BEAVERS. 



IN a former number of Forest and Stream inquiry 

 i was made as to the practicability of securing- some 

 Specimens of young beaver for transfer to meadows of 

 fife inquirer in Pennsylvania. There is no difficulty in 

 Mimng as many as required, but it would be at some 

 jgQuble and expense. When a family of beavers is found 

 % n favorable place the method and labor of getting 

 mem are much the same as in getting a family of young 

 voorlch ticks. 



'On many of the mountain streams of the West where 

 agaver are still found, there are meadows with dry per- 

 jfifidieular banks along tbe stream. In such places the 

 leaver builds his dam of brush and mud. From the bot- 

 idtO of the pond he makes his hole into the bank, running 

 I up to near the surface of the ground and then a foot or 

 „ MSB under the surf ace for a yard or two, where the nest 

 pill be found. If a mound of earth rising higher and 

 Jryer than the surrounding surface lies near by, the nest 

 Will be found there; and generally the nest is only a few 

 nclie* under the turf. On the margin of one creek I 

 lUve seen scores of such beaver holes exposed from the 



ij> of the bank to tbe nest by cattle walking over and 

 Bifjjpmg through tbe turf into the hole. In the* nest it is 

 tomnion to see a single skeleton of a beaver. It is prob- 

 {ble when from old age or other cause a beaver dif s in 

 $gnefct, the other members of the family remove to other 

 Hutc-re. 



I 'JPo secure a family of beavers alive, the whole opening 

 «lo tbe pond must be found and quietly but securely 

 tosed up. When that is done, dig to the hole from 

 {n&r the top of the bank, and close it thoroughly. Pre- 

 are a wire suck for the kittens and some protection for 

 four hands. The young ones now can be soon uncovered 

 fed secured. The old ones will be permitted to escape, 

 feb if caught it will be well to bear in mind the im- 



JoeoBe cutting power of their teeth. The young ones are 

 lot likely to try to leave the nest until they are nearly 

 Micovered, and all c hance for escape by their road to the 



nHpi has been cut off . Thi3 method of capture would 

 not do where they live on wet marshes subject to over- 

 "Jtow, and where beavers build themselves houses of mud 

 ind sticks. 



No animal is at more pains to have a dry place to live 

 a, and none live on coarser fare or show so much patience 

 i,nd industry. His sagacity and intelligence are prover- 

 iial. An example came under my notice while trout 

 iehing on a mountain stream a few years ago. A young 

 nan noticed a fresh beaver dam near the house and 

 waxed me to help him trap a beaver. The dam was of 

 triad and alder biush and ran across the creek, some 5yds. 

 vide at that point, with perpendicular banks and bor- 

 lered on each side witli dry land used as pasture land. 

 SVe broke out one end of the dam by an hour's hard work, 

 uld set our trap, using a large green alder bush for a 

 itake, which we forced into the mud out in the pond as 

 iar as the chain would permit. 



The next morning we found that the break in the dam 

 bad been carefully repaired and our trap with the stake 

 was woven into the very bottom of the break. The re- 

 jairs were so well done that it took us about an hour to 

 •ecover the trap; and we reset it in another place. The 

 lame result followed for five nights in succession. On 

 ;he sixth night the dam was repaired as usual, but about 

 ;he middle of the dam was a semicircular groove cut 

 (hrough the well-packed bushes and mud forming the 

 ;op, true and smooth as no man could do it, and lowering 

 k$ water in the pond some 6 or Sin. Of course, by so 

 mich it relieved the pressure on the dam. The beaver 

 joncluded the dam was too high for the strength of his 

 inaterial (though the young man and myself knew the 

 : act to be decidedly otherwise) and he made the pressure 

 ess in the safest way. The trap cut no figure in the ex- 

 leiinient beyond its being attached to a fine green alder 

 aiiah, just what the beaver needed to repair with, and so 

 ae dug it up every night and dragged it with the trap to 

 dio break; and it was the first and easist material he 

 lould get hold of to help make his repairs, the other 

 5uehes which he needed to cut for repairs to the dam grew 

 it quite a distance from the creek. 



Above the dam on this creek are meadows, and a gen- 

 tleman in hunting grouse was walking over them and 

 if as startled at the sight of an animal coming toward 

 lioi in a path leading through tbe tall grass that appeared 

 ike a little old man. On a better view, be concluded it 

 was not human and shot it. The animal turned out to 

 )ea very old, gray-bearded beaver, which had lost both 

 >f his forefeet by steel traps, and was now walking on 

 lis hindfeet and carrying a few sticks in his stumps of 

 iritis and evidently trying to provide for his future sub- 

 sistence. Intelligent as beavers are, if they could be 

 lomesticated no animal would attract greater interest. 

 J3je instinct for dam building might make him trouble- 

 ititne. But the object of that labor is to protect the en- 

 rahce to his home from his enemies and to provide a 

 >lace for his winter's supply of food, where he can use it 

 n safety and below the reach of ice. When the necessity 

 iO longer exists for his protection, in a generation or 

 wo, it is likely there would no longer be the desire for 

 lam building. G. H. W. 



Gold in a Grouses Gizzard.— We have recently re- 

 '■elved from Roland Ryder, a resident of British Columbia, 

 lie contents of the gizzard of a blue grouse (Dendragctpus 

 w&u-rus fuliginosus), which is of rather unusual interest. 

 ?he gizzards of gallinaceous birds commonly contain 

 {ravel or small stones, together with the commuted frag- 

 ments of the seeds, grains and other food on which the 

 >hds have fed. The contents of this gizzard, which had 

 >een washed before we received it, consisted of small 

 late and quartz pebbles, among which are four little 

 iuggets of gold. This specimen came from near the 

 'kagit mines, close to the United States boundary line, 

 'lid was originally in the possession of Mr. John Chance, 

 he discoverer of the Granite Creek Mines, near the 

 tailkarneen River. Mr. Chance killed the grouse high 



up on the mountains near the mines. He was alone when 

 he cut the gizzard open, but happening to see one of the 

 little gold nuggets as he did so, he called to him two 

 other miners who were working near- by and showed 

 them his odd find. The gold is quite coarse and the 

 pieces range in weight from that of a No. S to a No. 4 

 shot. This gold was no doubt picked up with the quartz 

 on some gravel bar in a river or brook near the spot where 

 the bird was killed. 



Western Biud Questions— Edgar, Neb., June 12.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: Your correspondent from 

 Broken Bow, Neb., in issue of June it, who inquires about 

 a bird captured near there, evidently refers to the black- 

 headed or laughing gull, as about that time a pair of 

 those birds were killed near this place and brought to me. 

 The only difference in the marking of the two brought to 

 me was that the female did not have the narrow rim of 

 white around the eyes. I saw a flock of birds in the 

 mountains of southern Wyoming last fall, which, as I 

 did not succeed in getting a specimen, I have been unable 

 to name. They were pretty well up, and appeared to be 

 feeding on the pine trees. The males were dove- colored, 

 with crest, wings and tail of a cinamon red— as near as I 

 can name it— females solid dove color, and appeared to 

 be about the size of a Baltimore oriole. I only saw the 

 one flock in a month's tramp. Can you name them?— H. 

 [It is of course very dangerous to attempt an identifica- 

 tion from so general a description as the one given by 

 "H.;" but it is possible that the birds which he saw in 

 Wyoming may have been pine grosbeaks (Phyrrhtda 

 enucleator), or perhaps they were red crossbills.J 



Arrivals at th r Philadelphia Zoological Garden in May 

 1890.— Purchased— Two wolverines (C/uZO lusoite); one Rhesus mon- 

 key (Macacits q-fflhrmt*). two beaver Want or fiber canadensis), ftrar 

 water moccasins (Anchtrvdon iriscicorus), one harlequin snake 

 {W:t)j" fiiirluH). one copperhead snake (Avctelrodon contortrix), 

 six ground rattlesnakes (Crotalophorus niilianus), one crowned 

 fantiUa (JPcwtttla wroriata), six pine euakes (Pilyaphis mclanolcu- 

 "«*>. two Indigo snake* (Spilot.es rrehaniua), eleven hlacksnakes 

 [Bascanium eonstrict&t), one common hog-nosed snake (Uelcrodon 

 platyrhtrm), ten king flakes (Opliibahts (jetidns), one scarlet king 

 snaUe (O. <tnliatun cuccinem), three coachwhip snakes (Jiaseaniutii 

 fi(H)dliforme), four water snakes (Tropidnnotussi)icd-on), one ejclops 

 water snake Tropidonotus cyelapcum), three chicken snakes (Cohi- 

 bernuodriiUliatus), two Allen's snakes (Liodifies alien i), one garter 

 snake (EuHtnki sii talis), three alligator snapping turtles (Macro- 

 chchjs laeertina) aud one striated turtle (Clielopns inscidptm). Pre- 

 sented— One opossum and young (Didelphys eirginiana), two 

 se'eeeh owls (Heaps asio), one red-tailed liuz/.ard (Buteo barealts), 

 one loou (Columbus torquatm), one blackbird (Quiseahts versicolor), 

 two Canary birds (Sr.rinus canarius), two catbirds (Galeoscoptes 

 carolincnsis), three alligators (Alligator lultsUsipincnsis), one dia- 

 mond rattlesnake (Grotalus adumantem), one Lecoutc's snake CR/ii- 

 nocliilis lecontcii), one California king snake Wphibolus yetulus 

 boylii), two garter snakes (Eutecnia sirtalis), one black snake (Bas- 

 canium constrictor), one water f-nake (Tropidonotus sipedon). one 

 Skilton's skink (Eun)eces gkiltouiamis), one horned lizard (Phryno- 

 soma cormda), t wo musk turtles (AromaeheVys odoratus), two red- 

 eared terrapins (1'scn.dcings clcgana) and one diamond-backed ter- 

 rapin (Malacoclriiiimis (lalustris). Born— Three prairie wolves 

 (Canis latram), one Virginia deer (Ca/riacus viroinianus) and three 

 pran ie dogs (Cy names ludaviclanus). 



$jitg mid 



" FOREST AND STREAM" GUN TESTS. 



nnHE following guns have been tested at the Forest and 

 JL Stream Range, and reported upon in the issues named. 

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

 Clabrough 12, May 1, 'SO. Parker 10. hammes June 6, '89. 

 Colt 12, .! ul y 35, '89. Parker 12, ham'rless. June (i ,';-9. 



Colt 10 and 12, Oct. 24, '89. Remington 16, May 30. '89. 

 FOLSOM 10 and 12, Sept. 26, '89. RejiinotonIS, Dec 5. '89, H'eb 6 '90 

 FnANCOTTE 12, Dec. 12, '89. ItBMTNGTON 10, Dec. 26, '89. 



Greener 12, Aug. 1, '89. 

 Greener 10. Sepr. 12- 1 9, '89. 

 HOLLIS 10, Nov. 7. '89. 

 Le fever 12, March 13, '90. 



rfCOTT 10, Sept. 5, '89. 

 L. C. Smith 12, Oct. 10, '89. 

 Whitney Safety 12, M'ch «, 'no, 

 Winchester 10 & 12, Oct. 3, '89. 



HINTS AND POINTS ON DUCKS. 



BY HENRY. KLEINMAN. 

 [Concluded from Pane M0.] 



ONE thing I have always noticed, and that is, that ducks 

 watch the mudhens very close. A flock of mud- 

 hens make the best decoys you can possibly have, and 

 you never want to scare the mudhens away from your 

 blind, for they will draw ducks when nothing else will. 

 The ducks may reason that the mudhens wouldn't be 

 there if there was danger, but there may be a further 

 reason besides that. A duck has the utmost confidence 

 in a mudhen's judgment as to a feeding place. Where- 

 ever a mudhen is, there you are going to find feed. 

 Moreover, about all the marsh ducks that don't dive well 

 will hang around the mudhens and feed on the roots and 

 stuff they tear up, or else will rob them of their food as 

 they come up from a dive. You will see widgeons and 

 pintails dart right down and light in among the mud- 

 hens. Once my son and I put out about 800 ducks from 

 a little willow cover, and a big bunch of mudhens went 

 out with them. We hid away and waited, and though 

 the ducks came back and circled round, they would not 

 light, and we knew it was because the mudhens had not 

 come back in there, Abe has a lot of mudhen decoys, 

 and says he wouldn't part with them. Naturally, the 

 ducks most apt to come in to mudhens are the widgeon, 

 teal, mallard, pintail, bluebills, ringbills and gadwall. 

 When they are hunting for a place, and ready to decoy, 

 about all the slough ducks will decoy to almost any 

 variety of decoy. I think, in a case like that, they often 

 will turn toward almost any sort of a noise to attract 

 their attention. You can "whistle" teal in the dusk of 

 evening, and you will notice ducks draw into that some- 

 times whose note is not in the least like that. But 

 usually the note must be very exact, and when you see 

 the birds set and draw in toward you all right, you had 

 better stop your calling and let them come, you keeping 

 perfectly still. You can call some birds without any 

 squawker or duck call, but I always use a call, and find 

 the imitation of each birds' note a great help in getting 

 a bag. 



It is a good plan in putting out decoys on a feed bed 

 not to shoot at the birds when you drive them out; very 

 often they will be coming back before you get out your 

 flock. This does not always happen just this way, how- 

 ever. 



Another thing I have not mentioned, and which per- 

 haps has as much as anything to do with the big bags 

 of a successful duck hunter, and that is, the hunter 

 should always be watching the flight of the birds and 

 making up his mind where they are going to be later on, 



or on the following day. If the ducks keep circling 

 round and going down all day in a certain place, it is 

 sure they have fed there, andlf you can get in, you will 

 get shooting there the next day. A knowledge of the 

 flight and habits of the ducks is essential. You want to 

 know where the different kinds of feed are on the marsh 

 and the nature of the spots where the birds are apt to 

 be working in different kinds of weather. For instance, 

 if you know the marsh ducks will be driven off the open 

 water by a heavy wind, have your plan made up where 

 to go and look for them if the morning has a heavy wind 

 blowing from Pitch, and such a direction. You have got 

 to study and know your ground, and there is everything 

 in that. I knew this Calumet marsh like a hook, and I 

 knew where the ducks would be, for such and such a 

 wind and for such a certain kind of weather. It was 

 often amusing to see some of the shooters follow me 

 around. I would tell them where I got my ducks, and 

 they would sneak out there early the next morning. By 

 the time I got ready to go out, i might conclude to go in 

 the opposite direction, to a spot where I knew the birds 

 were apt to be on that day; so that by the time night came, 

 they would be asking me again where I got all my birds, 

 and would be rfady once more to take a territory I was 

 usually quite ready to give to them. I had them follow 

 me all over the lake that way, day after day. but some- 

 way they didn't seem to strike it. The way of it was, 

 I had done some thinking and they hadn't. Some fellows 

 think if they get good shooting at one point they ought 

 to stay there all the week. Now the right way to do is 

 to watch out on the marsh all the time and have your 

 plans laid ahead. You will have to learn each marsh for 

 itself before you can be said to be perfectly fitted to shoot 

 there. Often in exploring around you will drop on to un- 

 expected places where you will get the best sort of shooting. 



Much of all this depends on the feed, and some ducks, 

 especially the mallards, have many different sorts of feed. 

 A mallard will do his best to get at acorn or corn feed, 

 but almost anything else will do, according to the country 

 he is in. He will eat these big, bulblike grass roots, or 

 will eat the buds off of certain plants. Thornapples and 

 dried berries of some other sorts be will eat, and also 

 snails, and also the green grass that grows on an overflow 

 in the spring; but he will not eat this much after it has 

 got to the top of the water. In the fall, mallards and pin- 

 tails are very fond of the smai-tweed seeds. 



The best of mallard shooting may sometimes be had in 

 the timber of the Mississippi Eiver. There will always 

 be ducks there, in a season of high water, if there are 

 ducks anywhere. I have had great shooting near New 

 Boston. If you find an open place in the timber, where 

 they feed, and put your decoys out in the open and go to 

 calling, it sometimes seems as if you couldn't keep the 

 mallards out. In the style of hunting down there, where 

 the ducks can't see the decoys very far, you have to keep 

 up your calling all the time, and it is sometimes funny to 

 sit on a log and listen to the different sorts of calls you 

 can hear, apparently for miles on every side of you. 

 Some of them make very strange sounds, and I imagine 

 some of them don't get very many ducks. 



Sometimes on the Illinois River you get timber shoot- 

 ing like that. 1 know once I found an open hole in the 

 timber near Hennepin Lake, and put out a lot of mallards 

 from it. There was a road cut through the timber, and 

 I put out my decoys right in front of this road. I got 

 into a treetop near by and went to calling. The mallards 

 began to come in right along that road, and they dropped 

 in to the decoys at once, without any warning. I killed 

 I'iS mallards in a little while that afternoon. 



I noticed one thing in that timber shooting, and that 

 was, it was very hard for me to "cross" two birds, aa 

 father always taught us boys to do in our early days on 

 the Calumet. The old gentleman expected about so 

 many ducks for every pound of powder he gave us, and 

 it paid us to double two birds to the shot whenever we 

 could, and we usually could over the decoys. But in the 

 timber the birds would come dropping down, one right 

 over another, and I only could get one at a time. I would 

 shoot one, and then pull the second barrel at about the 

 same place, and nearly always the next old fellow below 

 would jump right up into the second charge of shot. 



Another thing about this timber shooting is, nearly all 

 the birds that are not killed in the air kill themselves by 

 the fall through trees. You lose very few wing-tipped 

 birds. On the marsh you will lose, on the average, about 

 one-third of the birds you knock down, but in the timber 

 you get them nearly all — at least in such timber as tfiai 

 where I was shooting. In that one afternoon's shooting 

 I had three mallards pull their heads slick and clean off 

 in the forks of saplings as they fell down. 



I do not know that I ever killed more ducks in one day 

 than the 218 teal I have mentioned. I killed 130 ducks 

 on pretty much the same marsh in one day, of which 80 

 were cauvasbacks, and I was back at the bridge by 3 

 o'clock that day. I suppose I might think of a great 

 many other heavy days of shooting, but I do not know 

 that many would care to hear of that. I know I have 

 killed 5,800 ducks in one season here on Lake Calumet. 



Of course in shooting so much one would learn to shoot 

 pretty well, and we boys were early trained to be careful ' 

 in our shooting. I always shot brass shells, and when I 

 came home at night I nearty always had more ducks 

 than I had empty shells. I have killed 52 ducks in 50 

 consecutive shots, shooting on a flyway at teal, bluebill 

 and "blackjacks," or ringbills, as they came by in twos 

 and threes, or small bunches. 



I have been asked how I hold on a duck flying at about 

 the average distance of a shot, whether on or ahead, and 

 if ahead how much. I have read a great deal in the 

 sporting papers about holding ahead, and have seen it all 

 figured out that you have got to hold 5, 10 or 15ft. ahead 

 of a fast duck to bit it. Now, I think the man who did 

 that figuring could figure better than he could shoot. I 

 don't know much of the mathematics of it, but I do know 

 that for any ordinary distance I hold right on to ray 

 duck. At a very long shot I may hold pretty well up in 

 front of him. But I always follow the bird along with 

 the gun. As you do that you will see the bird double up 

 as soon as you crook your finger, or so eoon after it that 

 you can't tell the difference. That is the way all our 

 family shot, and we were all fairly successful. I never 

 saw a good shooter who poked his gun out in the air and 

 blazed away at a spot where he figured the shot and the 

 bird would come together. I think a great many shooters 

 who miss while holding close on do so because they un- 

 consciously flinch or stop just at the instant they pull the 

 trigger, or think they are going to pull it. The act of the 



