May 14, 1891.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



827 



angles with the shore. It was found to be a great accom- 

 modation, as we could always have the boat on the lee 

 side, thus doing away with the pulling of the boat upon 

 the shore when we landed. Joe was quite clever in these 

 matters, and always had the camp in systematic order. 



Ale x. St.iebuok. 



ANTOINE BISSETTE'S LETTERS-VIII. 



M'sieu Beeg Sebattis Mitchell: 



Ah "11 was ghul for gat you lett' me, an' have it you 

 called me "sab." Dese Yankee ant gat rispeck for mans 

 dat was so hoi for hees gran'pere an' was faght on de 

 Pappiaeau war, an' was gat so gray as geeses on top hees 

 head of it wid spiimple of gre' deal of snow in winter. 

 Dey was call me "hnl' Antwine," sometam "One Ant- 

 wine,'' de polite of it do, but dat kan ant many of de 

 Yankee, an' de young Frenchmans dat t'ink he was 

 Yankee cause he was preffume hees hairs wid hen ile, an' 

 part it of de middlin' of hees head and rode in taup buggy 

 wid hoi' boss mos' can' draw it, he jiet as wuss. He 

 called me "hoi man Bissette." 



Ah '11 lak for be called "Sah," me, or Bonhomme Bis- 

 sette. T'ank you for you polite. 



Wal, Ah do' know but Ah '11 was moch oblige for you 

 inflDrmation baout dat nem of bird, probly. Probly log- 

 cock was de nem in Maines, probly hwoodcock was de 

 nem in Vairmont. It ant gat no deeferance for de bird. 



Ah "11 know some Frenchmans has gat hees nem in 

 Canada Pierre La Roche, an' w'en be come here he was 

 Peter Stone, but he was .ifis' de sem Frenchmans an' smell 

 jis' lak his grandpere Jacques La, Eoche, of onion an' pea 

 soup. 



Ah '11 ant hear dat log everywhere ant mek of hwood, 

 ant it? What Ah '11 said was dab it was better nem for 

 bird dat paoun' hees head of a tree all de tam, be hwood- 

 cock, as for bird dat all de tam steek hees nose in de 

 mud an' you can' mek it lit of tree, hein? 



An b'lieved Ah "11 mek sleep of malr pen w'en Ah '11 

 wrote pill eatin' hwoodpeckit. M'sieu Mumsin say it waa 

 pill-he eat-it hwoodpeckit. 



He read me all Mees Hardy wrote it. Ah '11 lak it very 

 moch all she '11 said for dis-cribe her trav'lin' in de 

 hwood. 



It brought back of me grea' many t'ing Ah '11 see long of 

 mah hoi' frien" Sam Lovet w'en we be feeshin an' trap. 



But Ah '11 ant lak so moch dat Airish fellers Stockin' 

 Heels an' todder ones she '11 tol' of it. 



Ah do' know 'f she won't bus' de Maine law. Bah gosh , 

 Ah don' care 'f she was. It was pooty dry law, an' Ah 

 b'lieve dat sportsmans t'ink alldefeesh an' game was mek 

 for heem an' de law for todder feller. 



Ah '11 was very hones' man mahsef , an' ant broked law 

 more as Ah '11 w'as oblige. Ah '11 ant never took not'ing 

 Ah '11 ant want. 



Give mah. ri^gard of Mees Hardy an' yousef an' wrote 

 some more. Your truly, Aktoine Bissette. 



Scriji^ios. — Dereek Mr. Antoine Bissette, Danvit, Vair- 

 mont, care Fores Strim 



IN MEMORY OF "NESSMUK." 



/^N his grave but one winter's snows have fallen and melted, 

 ^ yet liis voice and his prf sence are almost forgotten. Though 

 the hemlocks that whispered to him of last spring's returning are 

 as green in perpetual verdure as when last he heard them, and 

 with voices unchanged are whispering the often-told story; though 

 the birds and first blossoms that with his last breath he welcomed, 

 with blooming and song, tell but the next spring's returning, he 

 is almost forgotten. 



In the clamor of voices, his voice has grown silent; out of 

 the thronged hands that are uplifted for things which are un- 

 attainable, his strong hand has fallen forever. In the turbulent 

 whirl of the world ho is almost forgotten; liis memory faded 

 like the wake of his boat from the breast of the river, where it 

 pulsed for a breath, then throbbed out in the swirl of the current. 



Yet some wiil remember him, him who was never alone with na- 

 ture, who caught and repeated her secrets to ears that she never 

 voucbsafed them. 



To them is his ghostly hand pointing the dimmer traced paths 

 of the woodland; still they hear his quaint runes of the forest; his 

 stories of camp and adventure; lessons of woodcraft and canoe- 

 ing, and unseen he presides at their camp-flres. 



While his hemloclis shall sigh in the springtime, repeating the 

 sigh of the streams, reawakened, while the thrush's bell chimes in 

 the aisles of the forest; the wooddrake preens his plumes in the 

 pride of his wooing; the voice of the whippoorwill throbs through 

 the twilight; while the paddle shall tread in the path of the rivers, 

 and the ea.mp-flre shall quicken the morris of shadows; while a 

 nook of the world is untamed and wilding— for all he has told us 

 of these, as never was told by another, the name of our "Ness- 

 muk" shall not be forgotten. Awahsoose. 



April 30, 1891. 



THE TRUTH IN NATURE. 



LESS than a century ago, in the time when men had 

 not penetrated so deeply into the study of nature, 

 there was a great deal of poetry and romance connected 

 with animal life that had been slowly but surely driven 

 out as the study advanced. 



Travelers, returning from unexplored regions, told 

 strange and incredible stories about the wonderful wild 

 animals they had encountered; but investigation has rent 

 asunder these fancilul tales, and left only cold facts in 

 their places, 



I am the owner of a natural history written by one 

 Eiley and published about the year 1789. It is a quaint 

 old book and its yellow leaves and odd type furnish the 

 reader with a number of strange accotints. Among others 

 may be found something like the following: "The diges- 

 tive apparatus of the ostrich is said to be very strong in- 

 deed, tnat bird not only being able to digest such things 

 as stones, bits of glass and iron; but it is even said that°it 

 makes a good meal of a bed of live co.als." 



"We laugh at such a statement, but no doubt at the time 

 of publication it was stated for a fact. 



What right have we to laugh? It is not long since 

 almost every one firmly believed the porcupine capable 

 of shooting its quills like arrows, and regarded it an 

 animal well able to defend itseTf against almost any foe, 

 instead of the qtiiet inoffensive little creature that curia 

 itself in a ball at the first a.pi)roaoh of an enemv, trusting 

 solely to its spine-covered akin for protection. " 



Men who lived only a short time before us did not ques 

 tion but what the pretty, graceful swallows that skimmed 

 so lightly o'er the blue waters in summer, buried them- 

 selves in the mud at the bottoms of our rivers and ponds, 

 when the sea'?on was over, to await the return of spring. 



It has been but a short time since investigation has 

 shown that the supposed happy family made up of the 

 prairie dog, the burrowing owl and the rattlesnake is not 

 only not a happy family; but does not exist at all. Otir 

 first idna was that these three animals of such different 

 habits, lived in perfect harmony, liked the so called happy 

 families of the modern circus; "but our faith in this belief 

 is somewhat shaken by the following which may be found 

 in Wood's Natural History: "According to popular 

 belief, these three creatures live very harmoniously to- 

 gether; but observation has shown that the snake and 

 owl are interlopers, living in the burrow because the poor 

 owner cannot turn them out and finding an easy subsist- 

 ence off the young prairie dogs." We were satisQed with 

 this for a time but judge the astonishment created when 

 Elliott Coues in one of his latest writings makes the fol- 

 lowing statement in speaking of the burrowing owl: "I 

 have found colonies in Kansas and other States, in all 

 cases occupying the deserted burrows of the quadrupeds, 

 not living in common with them as usually supposed." 



Naturalists are now telling us that the opossum does 

 not play 'possum; but is merely paralyzed with fear for 

 the time being, articles are published every day in our 

 ornithological papers and magazines which go to prove 

 that owls can see equally a^ well by day as by night. It 

 is still an tmdecided question whether snakes "charm"' 

 their prey or not. In the western backwoods these old 

 stories are still believed in, the ignorant classes cling with 

 fondness to them and will not learn anything different, 

 and down in our own hearts do we not all of us cling to 

 them, more or less? Do we not hate to give them up, 

 and is it not with a little regret that we are forced to ac- 

 knowledge that the porcupine does not shoot his quills, 

 that the bird of paradise really has feet and legs, and that 

 our national bird, the white-headed eagle, is far from the 

 noble bird we once thought him to be. Lotor. 



THE DRUMMING OF THE GROUSE, 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



My experience as to why the grouse drums is not in full 

 accord with that given by yom- correspondent "Dorp." 



I find that the grouse drums for the same reason that 

 birds sing. First to celebrate the mating season, second 

 to teach the art to the young. 



In Maine, my native State, the grouse usually drums 

 from an old moss-grown log, but in Cape Ann there are 

 no logs so the bird resorts to a boulder. There are two 

 such boulders near my cabin. I can easily hear the 

 drumming by day or night, particularly by night, as I 

 sleep in a hammock, in the open air, from the middle of 

 April to the middle of November. 



Early in the season the male drums while the female 

 is on the nest laying, and but seldom at other times ijntil 

 the female begins to sit. While she is sitting he drums 

 through the day for the first week, after which he con- 

 tinues the drumming into the night, and often drums all 

 night just before the chicks are out. 



Late in the season the old bird drums at long intervals, 

 as a lesson to the young. I often hear the feeble attempts 

 of the young males to produce the sound and I have fol- 

 lowed them throtigh all the stages up to the time when 

 they are become perfect. Hermit. 



New and Little Known Mammals.— We have re- 

 ceived from the American Museum of Natural History 

 three interesting papers extracted from Volume III. of 

 the Bulletin of the Museum, and comprising pages 195 to 

 198 inclusive and 203 to ii38 inclusive. These papers give 

 the results of the studies of Dr. J. A. Allen on certain 

 mammals collected in the Southwest and in Central 

 America. One i f the most interesting discoveries an- 

 nounced is that of the capture in southern California of 

 a new species of big-eared bat of the South American 

 genus Histiolis. It is not so very long ago that Dr. 

 Merriam described, from the same region, an interesting 

 new bat of the genus Molossus, allied to M. perotis of 

 Brazil, and this capture of a second South American bat 

 here is very interesting. It is only within a short time 

 that naturalists have begun to learn anything about the 

 fauna of southern California, and the unexpected forms 

 of life which have already been discovered there lead us 

 to look for still other remarkable finds as the region is 

 more thoroughly explored. "Notes on a Collection of 

 Mammals from Costa Rica" occupies 16 pages of the Bul- 

 letin and mentions 38 species, of which four are now first 

 described, a Blarina and three mice of the genus His- 

 peromys. A colhciion of mammals gathered by Mr. 

 George B. Sennett, the well-known ornithologist, and his 

 collection in southern Texas and northern Mexice is the 

 material described in the third paper under consideration. 

 This represents 31 species, of wnich two, a mole and a 

 jumping mouse (Dipodajjs), are new. 



Queer Freak of a Rabbit.— When I was a boy I took 

 my brother's old shotgun and feeling myself to be a veri- 

 table nimrod went in quest of rabbits, which to the eye of 

 a young novice seem as bia; in the bushes as a mule in the 

 barnyard. I had not gone more than oOOyds. from the 

 house when my keen eye caught sight of bunny just be- 

 hind a few slender twigs. I was sure of him. Bang 

 went the blunderbuss, the rabbit never stirred but sat 

 perfectly still. I had taken but one load and I thought 

 what should I do. Like the old farmer in the spelling- 

 book, I would see what virtue there was in stones. I 

 drew near and "let drive." Away he went, and I watched 

 him until he ran up a pile of rocks upon which he stopped 

 and, strange to say, remained until I went home, re- 

 loaded, returned and shot him. I will add that the rocks 

 upon which he sat were full of crevices in which he 

 could have safely hid himself. Verily the actions of game 

 are often puzzling as well as interesting to the hunter 

 and naturaUst.— N. D. E. 



Snake Bitten.— Greensburg, Fa.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: Oa last Wednesday night I went out to our 

 large greenhouse to adjust the heating furnace, and 

 while kneeling close to some loose bricks and other rub- 

 bish was bitten on the left knee by a snake which I take 

 to b» what we commonlv term a house snake, but as it 

 waa quite dark 1 pould not see it plainly, and it got 



away, Several of these snakes have been seen by differ- 

 ent members of the family this spring. I did not pay 

 much attention to the matter tmtil the next morning 

 when the wound and part of the leg was badly swollen 

 and dicolored. Not having anything else handy I plas- 

 tered it with a salve of zinc ointment and soda, bound on 

 with prepared antiseptic corrosive sublimate gauze and 

 painted around^ the discolored unhealthy skin with tinc- 

 ture of iodine. Since then the wound has emitted con- 

 siderable discolored matter, the swelling has decreased 

 and it is now healing toward the center from the edges. 

 At first I experienced both sharp and aching pains all 

 over my body, but this has also decreased, and while I 

 cannot use my limb I know that it is improving under 

 this treatment. I use whisky when pained at the heart, 

 and it seems to give relief. I write this because time 

 hangs heavily on my hands and some one else may 

 profit by using this treatment. Trout are fairly plenti- 

 ful, and most local anglers are getting after them during 

 this fine weather. No very large fish or big hauls have 

 been made yet, so if the' snakes just leave me alone I 

 may get a few of them yet. —Deacon. [The rattlesnake 

 and copperhead are the only venomous snakes known in 

 your section. It is unfortunate that the reptile was not 

 identified. You were fortunate to escape so easily as 

 you seem to have done.] 



An Albino Lobster.— G. M. Long & Co.. of New- 

 London, Conn., recently caught an albino lobster in 

 Fisher's Island Sound. The entire shell is white, even to 

 the ends of the claws. The eyes are pink. This is sup- 

 posed to be the first lobster of the kind that has been taken. 

 Blue lobsters are occasionally caught in Fisher's Island 

 Sound, and more rarely in Maine. 



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

 tories and British Provinces are given in the Book of the 

 Oa me Lauis. 



BOB WHITE VS. PA'TRIDGE. 



ROCKINGHAM, N, C— I read the letter of your Ken- 

 tucky correspondent, in which he enters his protest 

 against the false nomenclature which is so persistently 

 adopted in certain sections of the country, and bv which 

 our well-known gallinaceous bird is called a quail. You 

 wrote to me, several years ago, that it was useless to com- 

 bat the error, for it had become so firmly established that 

 it could not be uprooted. I know that there is always 

 great labor attending the removal of false impressions, 

 and that falsehood, when deeply imbedded in the human 

 mind, is a formidable opponent. But I have heard that 

 truth was mighty and would at last prevail. Our little 

 bird is allied to the quail of Europe in that it is gallina- 

 ceous. So are the partridge, the pheasant, the blackcock, 

 and all the varieties of grouse. A duck is allied to a 

 goose and a brant and a coot and a loon. But that does 

 not make a duck a goose. The quail is a migratory bird, 

 breeds in southern France or Spain, and in search of food 

 flies over the kingdom or the republic or the empire of 

 France, and when he reaches the British Channel he is 

 able to cross it, whether from Calais to Dover, or where 

 it is many miles wider. To do this he must have long 

 wings, so as to maintain an extended flight. Did any one 

 ever hear of Bob White flying so much as a mile ? Does 

 he migrate for hundreds of miles? As a general thing, 

 does he not die withiti a half mile of where he was 

 hatched? He does change his locality when food de- 

 mands require it— but he does not leave the neighbor- 

 hood. 



I am sustained in my ^news by the best ornithological 

 authorities. I shall content myself, at present, by quot- 

 ing from "Webster's Unabridged Dictionary"': "Quail— 

 A gallinaceous bird closely allied to the partridge of 

 Europe. In the United States this name is loosely ap- 

 plied to the Qrtyx virginianus, or Bob White." 



I do not claim that the Southern nomenclature is 

 correct. Our bird is not the partridge, but more closely 

 resembles it than it does the quail, both in plumage and 

 habits. The ruffed grouse is not the pheasant, nor is it 

 the partridge, as falsely called in Pennsylvania, Virginia 

 and the Carolinas on the one side, and New York on the 

 other. Otir little field bird should, by common consent, be 

 called Bob White, and thus put a stop to an unpardonable 

 absurdity. 



For the best of reasons, I did but little hunting during 

 the past season, and I do not think I bagged over forty 

 birds. During November, December and .January, I was 

 confined to my home and physically unable to enter the 

 field. My dogs seem to be sorry for it, and when un- 

 blocked would go off on a hunt by themselves. I felt 

 sorry for them, but nothing like so much as I did for 

 myself. My friend Sully, of Richmond, A^a., who gave 

 me both of them, and I took several small jaunts. My 

 powers of locomotion have been so poor that I let him do 

 most of the walking, while I took "high cuts" or sat 

 down on a stump or a stone and waited for him to come 

 round. What little shooting I did satisfied me that my 

 "right hand had not lost its cunning." But, alas! my 

 hunting days are nearly over, and all my joys in that 

 respect must be pleasant memories of the bygone. 



We have a large stock of birds for breeding purposes- 

 more than usual. If the nesting and rearing season is 

 propitious, when the fall comes the fields will be full of 

 them. Then I hope that our sportsmen will go in quest 

 of them with small-bored light guns. For such game the 

 10-bore is a nuisance. It is "uplifting the club of Hercules, 

 for what? To crush a butterfly or to brain a gnat." 



What is the real value of bench shows? The form and 

 muscle and hair constitute the standard of excellence. 

 Would a sportsman prefer a dog with all the physical 

 recommendations who had no keenness of smell, nor 

 stanchness, nor energy, nor sense? Would a man choose 

 a lawyer because he was a splendid specimen of physical 

 manhood? Give me a good serviceable dog which will 

 hunt, which knows how to hunt, which can stand hunt- 

 ing, which is stanch and has a good nose, and I care very 

 little about the shape of his head, of his legs or his body. 

 The reports of such meetings often amuse me— but I sup- 

 pose the owners, especially those who come out ahead, 

 find some fun in It. WSUS, 



