Dec. 4, 1890. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



&91 



NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 



By Rev. S. N. McAdoo. 

 T'M alone to-night in a solemn wood 



That murmuis afar like chafing seas, 

 For the wandering winds, in fitful mood. 



Are playing a march on the lowering trees, 

 And the balsarn-firs are sighing soft 

 To the gentle touch of the courting breeze. 



1 have pitched my tent on a mossy bank, 



And kindled a fire before the dcor, 

 Where the flames leap up with many a prank 



From the pitchy knots that hiss and roar, 

 While I turn my steak on a wooden spit, 



And the grateful odors upward pour. 



How sweet to Ihe taste is the simplest dish 

 When the wood-nymphs pour their flavors rare; 



Ye housed-np kines in vain may wish 

 In a banquet, half so rich to share 



As regales the palate of him who drinks 

 Of the sylvan stream and tbe tonic air. 



But now the evening meal is past, 

 And the wings of flame have flown away 



From their nest of coals, now fading fast, 

 And drowning deep in the ashes gray, 



And to me, when alone, draws nature near, 

 And talks in a sweet, familiar way. 



She whispers love from every breeze, 

 And laughs in the brooklet soft and low, 



And, down through the netted limbs of trees, 

 She looks on me from the stars that glow 



As a mother's eyes, when the beams of love 

 On her first-born babe begin to flow. 



And I, as a child iu the mother's armsj* 

 O'ercome with sleep and with love caressed, 



Full far removed from the world's alarms. 

 Lie down in the soft embrace of rest, 



While nature chants her lullaby song 

 And soothes me to sleep on her gentle breast. 



NOTE ON THE GRAY WHALE. 



THE following extract from a letter recently received 

 from Judge Caton, will he read with interest. This 

 distinguished author is spending the winter on the Cali- 

 fornia coast at Monterey, and takes as great an interest 

 as ever in matters pertaining to natural history and sport. 

 Writing under date of Nov. 22, he says: 



I am informed that during the past summer the great 

 Bay of Monterey has literally swarmed "with fish of 

 various kinds and especially mackerel, so that a fisher- 

 man from a boat could rarely throw a hook into the 

 water without its being instantly seized, usually by a 

 mackerel. This has invited into the bay seals and other 

 marine animals which subsist upon fish; and numbers of 

 tbe California or gray whale are now frequenting its 

 waters, and are so tame that they sometimes endanger 

 the boats of fishermen. 



This whale, it may be remembered, is the fiercest and 

 most dangerous of all the cetaceans, and, being an in- 

 shore whale, was formerly pursued from stations on 

 shore, of which there were many between San Francisco 

 and San Diego. Most of these have been abandoned 

 within the last ten or twelve years, owing to tbe scarcity 

 of the animal, since which time they have no doubt been 

 on the increase. The wreckage of two of these stations 

 which were near here may still be seen. 



This is the only whale whose breeding grounds are 

 well known. These are the lagoons, which penetrate 

 the land from the ocean, and here thirty or forty years 

 ago they were sought by the whalers, and terrible and 

 destructive combats took place with these ferocious 

 animals. 



The gray whales are rarely seen more than ten miles 

 from shore. They are strictly migratory, passing to the 

 north in the spring as far as Bebring Sea, and even into 

 the Arctic Ocean, and returning in the fall. Their range 

 is from the Gulf of California and Cape St. Lucas to the 

 extreme north. They are rather small in size, the very 

 largest not exceeding 70ft. in length. 



The weather here is most charming, with every indica- 

 tion of very light rains this winter, which means fine 

 trout fishing a couple of months hence in the streams 

 putting into tbe ocean from the mountains, Last season 

 these streams were so high that they afforded very little 

 sport for the angler. J. D. Caton. 



Food of the Amebian Goshawk —Editor Forest 

 and Stream: In the past few years I have stuffed and 

 mounted quite a number of American goshawks, and in 

 many cases find the stomach to contain a quantity of tbe 

 flesh, feathers, etc., of the ruffed grouse. Mr. J. S. 

 Woodworth, of South Berwick, Kings county, N. Y., tells 

 me: "Last fall while out partridge shooting I saw some- 

 thing moving a few feet beyond a brook near by. Think- 

 ing it a partridge or some bird about the same size, I 

 fired at it, and on going to the .*pot found that I had 

 killed ait American goshawk. The ground being covered 

 with a light fall of snow numerous tracks attracted my 

 attention, and on looking around I saw in the brook a 

 ruffed grouse, all under the water but its head. A 

 further examination of the tracks disclosed the fact that 

 the grouse had been pursued by the hawk, and had either 

 fallen into the brook or had gone in for safety from bis 

 savage enemy. I took the bird from the water, wrung its 

 neck and took it home."— W. L. Bishop (Kentville, N. S,). 



Habits of the Horseshoe Crab.— "Some land crabs 

 of the "West Indies and North America," says a writer in 

 the Nineteenth Centary, "combine in large swarms in 

 order to travel to the sea and to deposit their spawn, and 

 each such migration implies concert, cooperation and 

 mutual support. As to the big molucca crab (Limulus) I 

 was struck (in 1882 at the Brighton Aquarium) with the 

 extent of mutual assistance which these clumsy animals 

 are capable of bestowing upon a comrade in case of need. 

 One of them had fallen upon its back in a corner of the 

 tank, and its heavy saucepanlike carapace prevented it 

 from returning to its natural position, the more so as 

 there was in the comer an iron bar, which rendered the 



task still more difficult. Its comrades came to the rescue 

 and for one hour's time I watched how they endeavored 

 to help their fellow prisoner. They came two at once, 

 pushed their friend from beneath, and after strenuous 

 efforts succeeded in lifting it upright; but then the iron 

 bar would prevent them from achieving the work of 

 rescue, and the crab would again heavily fall upon its 

 back. After many attempts one of the helpers would go 

 in the depth of the tank and bring two other crabs, which 

 would begin with fresh force the same pushing and lift- 

 ing of their helpless comrade. We stayed in the aquar- 

 ium for more than two hours, and when on leaving we 

 again came to cast a glance upon the tank the work of 

 rescue still continued. Since I saw that I cannot refuse 

 credit to the observation quoted by Dr. Erasmus Darwin, 

 namely, that 'the common crab during molting season 

 stations as sentinel an unmolted or hard-shelled individ- 

 ual to prevent marine enemies from injuring molted indi- 

 viduals in their unprotected state.' " The crab here referred 

 is the well known horseshoe crab, horsefoot or king crab 

 of our Atlantic coast {IAimdus polyphenius), which is one 

 of the curiosities of the animal kingdom and a Bubject of 

 grave speculation as to its proper place in nature. The 

 species has been introduced into European waters and 

 also into San Francisco Bay, Cab, where it is supposed to 

 have been carried with oyster spat from the Atlantic. 

 The breeding habits of the horseshoe crab are extremely 

 interesting and may be found described in Section I. of 

 the Fishery Industries of the United States. This ani- 

 mal is one of the great attractions in the marine aquaria 

 at Washington. 



A Snowbird in a Crockery Store.— Lockport,N. Y., 

 Nov. 25. — About the first of this month a slate- colored 

 junco {Junto hyemalis) flew into the crockery store of W. 

 Ei. Jenney & Son, on Main street, this city, and has re- 

 mained there ever since, excepting one day when it was 

 out for a few minutes. I happened to call at the store 

 after it had been there about a week, and was asked 

 what kind of a bird it was that had taken possession of 

 their store. I failed to see any bird for some time, but 

 finally Mr. Jenney, Jr., flushed it from the rear of the 

 store, and as it flitted past me I saw the two white feath- 

 ers in the tail and identified the above species. I have 

 called a number of times since to ask about it, expecting 

 every time to be told that it had taken its departure, but 

 after a few moments' search it has always been found, 

 generally perched on some article on the upper shelf. I 

 called again last evening and was directed to one of the 

 many hanging lamps on sale. At first I was unable to 

 see the bird, but finally found it perched under the col- 

 ored glass shade on the soft wick that was in the burner. 

 A Brush electric lamp was burning within 12ft. , and I 

 wondered why it should have taken up the position to 

 spend the night so close to the bright light. But I found 

 that the green shade under which it was perched pro- 

 tected it from the light and brought out the bluish slate 

 color of the head and upper part, and also the white of 

 the bill and the under parts. I stood within 5ft. of it for 

 some time in conversation with Mr. Jenney, and it did 

 not seem to be the least disturbed. I think it is a very 

 queer place for a snowbird to select to spend the winter. 

 It feeds on seeds and crumbs of crackers placed in the 

 window in the back end of the store.— J. L. Davison. 



An Ill-Natured Bird.— Dayton, O., Dec. 1.— John EL 

 Mittendorf of this city, who travels for Croft & Allen of 

 Philadelphia, caught a young pebcan on Morris Island, 

 South Carolina, and sent it to the National Soldiers' Home 

 near this city. The bill of the bird is about 12in. long, 

 and the pouch beneath has capacity of a gallon. He lives 

 among the miniature ponds and tropical plants in one of 

 the large greenhouses at the Home, is a ravenous feeder 

 on fish, and is an ill-natured bird, snapping his ungainly 

 jaws at everybody that passes. — Brown. 



Dayton, O., Dec. 1.— While hunting quail in Logan 

 county, Luther Horn shot and killed a bald eagle that 

 measursd 7ft. 7in. from tip to tip of his wings. The quail 

 season closes in Ohio Dec. 15, therefore there are but nine 

 days more sport for the hunters. 



'%tne §ag mtd %m\. 



The full texts of the game laws of all the States, Terri- 

 tories and British Provinces are given in the Book Of the 

 Game Laws. 



BOSTON AND MAINE. 



THE local coot shooters have not had remarkably good 

 luck this year, though the shores have been lined 

 with flying birds on the occasion of one or two storms. 

 At Brant Rock the shooting has been rather poor this fall, 

 but on one of the last gales several good bags were made. 

 Thus far few brant have been killed, a half-dozen cover- 

 ing about tbe quantity of this year. Still the occasion of 

 another southeast gale will send the gunners down to the 

 Rock in good numbers, though the season is already too 

 late. The gunners have not had as good shooting at An- 

 nisquam and the Ipswich River. Birds have seemed to 

 be scarce, and very wild. Their flights, even in stormy 

 weather, have oftener been out of gunshot than close in 

 shore, as on former seasons. At Biddeford Pool the local 

 gunners, who could be on the spot at the moment, have 

 had some good sport, but to sportsmen from Boston and 

 other distant towns there has been only a series of dis- 

 appointments. The birds have usually flown before the 

 gunners were on hand, though notified carefully— some- 

 times by telegraph — by the boatmen and hotel keepers. 



A. W. Gore, H. B. Plummer, Charles Bradbury, N. C. 

 Nash and C. W. Dimick have recently been on a gunning 

 excursion to Cape Cod, giving special attention to quail. 

 They report the birds small and not as plenty as they ex- 

 pected to find them, though they made some fair bags. 

 Mr. C. E. Bassett beat the record shooting in southern 

 New Hampshire this fall. Together with a companion 

 they have a record of some 100 birds this season; most of 

 this number were woodcock. It is evident that they know 

 where and when to go, for others who have tried to follow 

 in their tracks have returned empty handed. Still one or 

 two others have had luck, Mr. R. Shumway having a 

 record of 43 woodcock in the same State. 



There have been one or two good tracking snows in 

 Maine of late, and tbe reports of deer killed begm to come 

 in. Some have also been smuggled into the market here. 

 Mr. Willie Clark, of Rumford, in this State, recently shot 

 a deer while swimming the river, in a location where a 

 deer twenty years ago would have been unheard of. And 

 so it is, t;he deer are actually more plenty in the sparsely 

 settled portions of the farming country than in the deep 

 forests, if possible, since they are hunted less in such 

 locations. A deer recently swam the river a short dis- 

 tance from Livermore Falls, and then browsed in the field 

 awhile before taking to the woods. Mr. W. Mills, of 

 Boston, has secured a fine caribou head this fall. It is 

 being mounted by Crosby of Bangor. It spreads 37in. 

 across the antlers. The antlers are 4ft. in length and have 

 twenty-eight points. The caribou was killed Oct. 10, in 

 Jackman Plantation in Somerset county, Me. Three deer 

 have recently been seen in Chesterville, Me., in a field 

 with tbe cattle. The owner of the cattle is of the opinion 

 that the deer have lain with the cattle at night. But the 

 hunters are now after the deer, and they will hardly lie 

 with the cattle any more. 



Hiram G. Blacon, of West Paris, has recently had a 

 funny adventure with a coon. Hearing the barking of 

 his dog one night be went to the scene of the fray and 

 found that the dog had a coon in the corner of the fence, 

 and that the coon, not daring to turn tail to the dog, had 

 showed fight head on. Mr. Blacon put a charge of small 

 shot into the coon, but the charge was not enough to kill 

 the tough little fighter, but sufficient to make him watch 

 his opportunity to turn from the dog. Mr. B. is a tall 

 man, and doubtless the coon thought that he was a tree, 

 or at least that he would do for a tree. He climbed him 

 in a moment and perched on his shoulder, out of the 

 reach of the dog. It was now Blacon's turn to be scared, 

 and he tried to dislodge the coon, but he only drove his 

 claws in the tighter. All this time the dog was greatly 

 excited. In sbeer desperation the man was for running 

 into the house, coon, dog and all, when on passing a post 

 the coon jumped for it. Here he was dispatched with 

 the gun. Special. 



"A WORD FOR THE ENGLISHMAN." 



Editor Forest and Stream; 



I beg space to reply, as briefly as possible, to a few of 

 the points in "C. P. W.'s" criticism of my book, "The 

 Big Game of North America." I am glad to say at the 

 outset that all Englishmen are not game butchers by any 

 means, but so many of those who have visited this coun- 

 try solely for the purpose of hunting have conducted 

 themselves as such, that I deem Mr. Cooke's remarks con- 

 cerning the particular one of whom he wrote as fair and 

 just. I have met a number of these visiting Englishmen 

 in the Far West myself, and they have told me of killing 

 large numbers of big game animals for which they bad 

 no use, and of which they could not save even a part. 

 One of these gentlemen, for instance, whom I met on a 

 certain trip in the Shoshone Mountains, said to me: "I 

 killed eleven elk yesterday, but none of them had good 

 heads and so I did not take any of them." 



When I protested against this waste he replied: "It's 

 a long way over here from our country, you know, and 

 • when we come we want to have a little sport." 



Another Englishman, named Jamison, who has made 

 several hunting trips to this country has left a trail of 

 blood wherever he could find game enough to make it. 

 On one occasion he hired three guides and kept them out 

 for nearly three months. He ordered them to kill every- 

 thing they saw in the way of game and avowed his de- 

 termination to break all previous records in that line. In 

 one instance he got a stand on a herd of buffalo and killed 

 twenty-three of them. He corraled a band of elk in the 

 head of a canon and shot down seventeen of them. He 

 did not take a head, a skin or a pound of meat from any 

 of these animals. He wounded a deer so that it could 

 not get up and then amused himself by sticking his knife 

 in its quarters a number of times and watching its 

 struggles. He became so enraged at one of his saddle 

 horses because it could not carry him up to a certain 

 buffalo that be cut it with bis hunting knife, disabling it 

 so that it had to be turned out. 



At the end of this slaughtering tour Jamison's score 

 (with that of his guides) footed up 4 12 head of big game. 

 One of his guides, a man whom I know intimately, 

 whom 1 have hunted with and' whom I believe to be 

 truthful, is Sam Fishel. He is now in the employ of the 

 Government and is stationed at Fort Custer, Montana. I 

 have also heard of Jamison's butchery from a number of 

 ranchmen and business men in tbe Far West. Possibly 

 he is the same man Mr. Cooke refers to. For the sake of 

 all decent men, of whatever nationality, I hope so, for I 

 should hate to know that there are two such brutes alive 

 anywhere. 



A great many Englishmen have left bad names in our 

 Far West for having killed large numbers of our game 

 animals for mere sport, leaving the carcasses to rot- 

 others for killing large numbers and saving only the 

 heads. The most of this work was, of course, done back 

 in the sixties and seventies. No man could slaughter 

 game to such an extent now, even if disposed to do so. 



The man mentioned above gave the general excuse of 

 his class when he told me the distance necessary to travel 

 and the expense of coming from England to hunt in this 

 country justified large killing for sport alone. 



It is true that all the game butchers are not English- 

 men. We have hundreds of them here who should have 

 been banished to some desert island years ago. 



Mr. Perry explained in a recent number of Forest and 

 Stream why he and his party killed so large a number of 

 elk in one day, and to his communication I respectfully 

 refer "C. P. W." I am grateful to this gentleman for 

 the candid and fair-minded manner in which he criticises 

 these two of my contributors, and for his kind words con- 

 cerning the others. G. O. Shields. 



Game in North Carolina.— Mr. Benjamin Kuser of 

 Trenton, N. J., has lately returned from a ten days' trip 

 to Littleton, N. C, on the Roanoke River. As Mr. Kuser 

 relates it, the story of his trip, or rather what be accom- 

 plished, and what he accomplished it with, is remarkable. 

 His bag for tbe ten days was 200 quail, 30 woodcock,. 6 

 wild geese, and numerous other birds. The historian says 

 that Mr. Kuser claimed, to have used for the geese a gun 

 weighing 25lbs., loaded with ilb. of black powder and 150 

 buckshot. 



