124 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Sept. 3, 1891. 



All the time the hen bii-d is sitting the cock stands near 

 and utters a low, soft and coaxing cry, as of a nurse 

 "crooning" to a baby. The cock also continues this note 

 all the time that it is sitting on the nest, 



Every morning the birds awake at sunrise and make 

 the neighborhood ring with their shrill cry of Bob 

 Wliite or buckwheat, as some aver it is. The morn- 

 ing, moreover, is the only time that the birds utter this 

 call, for the remainder of the day keeping up an almost 

 incessant chee-iveep. The cry of cock or hen can only 

 be distinguished by the coarseness of the male bird's 

 note. Mr. Rudolph feeds hie birds at an early hour, and 

 finds that then- appetites are very strong. After they 

 have "gorged without restraint," the quail retire into the 

 bushes to sleep off the effects of their meal. They get 

 very lethargic toward the middle of the day and another 

 nap is necessary. The caged birds, although thoroughly 

 "acclimatized," are extremely restless, and run up and 

 down the front of their cage all the time that they are 

 not nesting, after the manner of captive lions. 



After the evening meal— for two feeds a day is their 

 allowance — the birds retire to roost. The uncaged birds, 

 IMj'.Rudolph has observed, do not like to rest imder cover, 

 but prefer to sleep on the open ground, cruching down so 

 low that they cannot be observed. They are hearty 

 sleepers and cannot be easily disturbed. They never 

 holloa at night, although if frightened in full daylight 

 their cries are vei-y loud. Mr. Wood states that when 

 wild the quail sleep in a circle with their heads turned 

 outward and their tails touching. 



.fe: In the winter Mr. Rudolph keeps his birds out in the 

 yard, as during the warmer months, for they are exceed- 

 ingly hardy. When in their wild state starvation, not 

 cold, kills them, and in consequence they can be readily 

 entrapped, for hunger makes them forget their cunning. 



Mr. Rudolph is confident now that he can keep any 

 species of quail and breed them. In the near future he 

 intends to try the experiment of placing quails' eggs 

 under a bantam hen, and believes that he can hatch and 

 rear the little ones in spite of their wLldness and the 

 strange habits of the foster mother. From a commercial 

 point of view, his secret should be of much value to game 

 fanciers and also to purveyors. Mr. Rudolph, however, 

 never eats them, and, unless necessary, seldom kills any 

 of his birds. Those he has had for three years show as 

 good signs of living as any freshly caught birds. 



The young ones which he has hatched out have, in 

 their turn, raised new broods, and no deformity is noticed 

 in those born in captivity. Every new brood maintains 

 the peculiarities, and, as far as can be observed, the hab- 

 its, of wild birds. Theu* motions and manner of eating 

 in nowise resemble chickens. A visitor sitting in Mr. 

 Rudolph's inclosure could shut his eyes and imagine him- 

 self niiles away, among the cornfields, far from the dust 

 and din of town, as he hears the cheeping of the little 

 ones and the soft, coaxing note of the father bird. 



Mr. Rudolph has found it impossible to tame his birds 

 so far as to let themselves be handled. Though the quail 

 undoubtedly know him, they are just as shy with him as 

 they would be in the open fields. The utmost he has 

 been able to do is to get a hen to take a fly from his fin- 

 gers. The young ones are equally shy, but prove them- 

 selves very teachable, for already they will answer to his 

 whistle. 



Nearly all of his birds are bald on the top of their heads. 

 This is owing to their wildness when in cages, flying up 

 against the bars or roof of their houses. At first,'indeed, 

 so wild were they, many of them were killed, commiting 

 accidental suicide in that manner. Since then, however, 

 the survivors have learned by experience and no cases of 

 felo cle se have been reported for some time past. The 

 caged birds are otherwise as wild as if captured yester- 

 day. 



"At first I used to be," ^laid Mr. Rudolph, "much 

 bothered about the cats, for they would do their level 

 best to get a tender young quail for their meals. Only 

 one cat ever got a meal off my birds." With a signi:^- 

 cant look he shook his head and continued: "But I got 

 even with them and they don't trouble me any more. I 

 haven't seen a cat around here for a month." 



The much-abused sparrow is another sworn foe to Mr. 

 Rudolph's birds, for many a young quail has succumbed 

 to a knock on the head from those ubiquitous English- 

 men. The mother quail are continually on the look- 

 out and are ever ready to fly to the rescue. 



A local taxidermist has cleverly stuffed a number of 

 the little birds who have succumbed from these and 

 various causes. They represent a very interesting group. 

 It is Mr. Rudolph's intention to procure a fine cock and 

 hen and have them also stuft'ed with the brood. Such a 

 group is a great rarity, as, though it is very easy to pro- 

 cure the eggs, a newly-born covey of quail is extremely 

 hard to procure, 



Mr. Rudolph's birds are all of the species known as 

 Oi'tyx virginianus, or Virginia quail. It is of the same 

 family as and differs very little from the partridge of 

 Great Britain, except in size. It is of a reddish brown 

 color on the upper part of the breast, and the male bird 

 is marked over the eyes and under the chin with white 

 bands. In the hen these bands are of a yellowish-brown 

 hue. The sides of the neck are brown, sprinkled with 

 black and white, the wings are grayish brown, and the 

 tertials are edged with stripes of a yellow-wliite color. In 

 the case of his birds, Mr. Rudolph notices that many of 

 them vary in color, some being much lighter than others. 

 Moreover, he has observed a growth of pure white feathers 

 in the wing?, which are regularly cut once in every three 

 weeks. It is curious that these white feathers, which 

 usually are seen only in the severest winters, should 

 appear in the hot months. 



When Austin Whitcomb was in Kentucky last fall he 

 secured some young quail. On his return he gave a pair 

 to George A. Galloupe. The hen quail in due time com- 

 menced laying and died after depositing her fifteenth 

 egg. With commendable loyalty and devotion the male 

 quail went on to the nest and sat there, after the most 

 approved fashion, for four weeks, at the end of which 

 period the substitute came off with a full count of lively 

 young quB,il.— Beverly (Mass.) Citizen. 



The Newark, N. J., Sunday Call records that Mr. 

 David B. Dickinson, of Lower Chatham Bridge, has 

 again been successful in getting woodducks' eggs and 

 raising a brood under a hen. He has been doing this 

 for many years, and generally the ducks fly away at the 

 end of the season if he does not kill them for specimens. 



SOME HYDRAULIC ENGINEERS. 



LAST week, while making some repairs, I found the 

 nest of an English sparrow built directly in the 

 gutter on the eave of my house. The gutter is a tin 

 swinging gutter, and at that point the shingle ends pro- 

 jected well down into it. I found at the bottom the nest 

 constructed of coarse material, splinters of wood, weeds, 

 etc., through which the water could readily run. A. large 

 mass was used, and the nest proper was far back under 

 the shingles and up above the water flow, and was made 

 of fine closely compacted and cemented material. 



The pond on my land has been frequently drained of 

 water, which passed into a hole near the bottom and ran 

 thence through a tunnel to the creek more than 200yds. 

 away. This tunnel was made by muskrats, and it passed 

 under a hill the surface of which at one point must be at 

 least 15ft. above the tunnel. Now the questions are, how 

 could the muskrat engineer and make such a tunnel, and 

 what prompted the sparrow to so construct the nest as to 

 avoid the flow of water in the gutter — reason or instinct? 



J. S. M. 



Kentucky. 



Hen and Kitten.— Editor Wm. Seavy, of the Pulaski, 

 Va., News, sends us this item, for the truthfulness of 

 which the Neivs vouches: The little eight-year-old son of 

 Harry Alexander has a hen at his home in Newbern that 

 is taking care of a young kitten in place of a brood of 

 chickens, and is apparently as fond and proud of it as 

 though it were a young chick. The boy found biddy sit- 

 ting on her nest in the barn, and putting his hand beneath 

 her to see what she was covering was sm'prised to find 

 the kitten. The foster mother was very indignant and 

 vexed when her little charge was temporarily removed, 

 and pecked viciously at the boy's hand when he removed 

 it. It was returned to the nest. It is supposed some 

 cat had taken her young offspring to the nest for safety 

 and the hen insisted on taking it in charge. There is no 

 accounting for the strange freak taken" now and then 

 by some animals in adopting and caring for the young of 

 some other species. 



A Black Woodchuck.— Williamsport, Pa., Aug. 26.— 

 Tuesday, Aug. 25, 1 was shown a jet black woodchuck or 

 ground hog, which had been killed that same mornmg 

 in Bradford county. Pa., and which fine animal I pur- 

 chased to be mounted for my collection of mammals. The 

 animal is not large for a woodchuck, but appears to be 

 several yeai's old, judging by the toughness of the mus- 

 cles, etc, It makes the impression at first sight of a cub 

 bear. The beautiful gloss of its hair, however, attracts 

 attention at once. On each side of the animal's head is 

 a large spot of dark chestnut brown, front part of muz- 

 zle or mouth is whitish, forming a circle of about one 

 inch diameter. All the rest of the body is as black as 

 black can be, and its back vies with the sheen of mink or 

 otter. — August Kooh. 



'^Htn^ md 0uij^ 



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

 tories and British Provinces are given in the Booli of the 

 Game Laws. 



TWO WEEKS OUT OF PURGATORY. 



THURSDAY, Oct. 30.— After waJrefuIly sleeping all 

 night on the cars, we had a couple of hours in Boston 

 for breakfast at Young's before taking the 9 A. M. train 

 to Portland. Lunched at the Union Depot, where two 

 ebony sharks unsuccessfully attempted to magnify a 70 

 cent d la carte into a $1 table cThote. Leaving Portland 

 audits ungenerate blacks at 1:15 P. M., reached Leeds 

 Junction at 3 P. M., and Farmington at 5 o'clock, where 

 we took a narrow-gauge car for Strong. It is said to be 

 impossible in northern Maine to maintain a track wider 

 than 2ft., owing to the severity of the winters, which 

 will contract a 4ft. 8-Jin. road into narrow gauge after a 

 single season. From Strong another httle wood-bm-ning 

 locomotive kept showering stars into the night till it 

 landed us at Kingfield at 7 P. M. Supper ended at the 

 country hotel, we negotiated with the stage owner for a 

 special rig to Smith's F&vm next day. From Portland, 

 and even from Boston, the country had taken on the 

 Down-East look, and all things discovered Yankeedom, 

 from the train men with their broad A's and eternal 

 guessing to the omnipresent mince pie; but this stage 

 owner was the first native with whom we had to wrestle 

 in a bargain. Having agreed to cai-ry us to Stratton, it 

 took him half an hour more to fix, or rather teU us the 

 price. Repeated requests for the information were 

 answered evasively, and twice the direct question about 

 price arrested him just as he was slinking through the 

 door. Finally after a supreme effort he named a reason- 

 able, figure, and we parted with him for the night. 



Friday, Oct. SI. — By 7:30 A, M. we were in a two-horse 

 conveyance bound for Stratton. A hearty young Blue 

 Nose occupied the fourth seat, while the place of the 

 driver was filled by a most independent and remarkable 

 youngster of a baker's dozen years of age, who took the 

 responsibility of bringing us over twenty -eight miles of 

 rough road. The Nova Scotian with his coporeal laugh 

 was an interesting and amusing traveling companion, 

 who as much deserves a full-length portrait as did Thor- 

 eau's Canadian; his indelicate handling but thorough 

 appreciation of a cigarette were alone a rich study in 

 contrast. 



On the right hand side of the road from Kingfield and 

 above the neighboring hills rose the snow-covered crest 

 of Mt. Bigelow, a glorious and impressive sight. Espe- 

 cially was it to be remembered as we had been riding 

 through a desolate stretch of burnt land, bare of every- 

 thing but charred stubs standing in their blackness. 



Saturday, Nov. 1. — The baggage with driver on a buck- 

 board, one of the party horseback and the other and two 

 guides afoot, we reached Tim Pond, seven miles distant, 

 by noon. The camp consists of twelve log cabins clus- 

 tered on a low knoll a couple of hundred feet from the 

 east end of the pond, and around the cabins is a cleared 

 space of two or three acres, edged wdth the original for- 

 est. The main body of the pond lying in front of the 

 camp is roughly rectangular in shape and about half a 

 mile long by three-eighths of a mile wide. Toward the 

 southeast four miles away is Kejinebago Mountain, and 

 between it and the pond is a douljle range of liille called 



the South and Southwest Ridge a mile or more distant. 

 Across the pond is Black Mountain, looking like a reclin- 

 ing elephant, and at the west is Majile Hill, The strip of 

 flat ground around the pond a mile or so wide is swampy 

 in places, and as we found later most abominable travel- 

 ing. Around the shore, in stretches hundreds of yards 

 long, is an embankment looking for all the world like .an 

 artificial levee. 



After lunch we went out for a few hours, bringing home 

 mental photographs of deer ti'acks, one partridge and 

 four appetites. The day ended in the log cabin, basking 

 and blinking in the yellow fire light. 



The cabin of logs is about 15x20ft. in size, with split 

 cedar shingles laid nearest the sky. A piazza roof keeps 

 the rain off the wash-room, which is open on three sides 

 and floored with a bit of the earth's crust. Within the 

 hut is sheatbed with boards, and at the east end are two 

 beds separated by a narrow passageway, a second floor 

 five feet up, laid half across the cabin, forming a sort of 

 attic for baggage. At the southwest end of the room is 

 an open fireplace 5ft. broad and 3 deep, arched at the top. 

 The gray stones roughly set in coarse mortar are built 

 into an irregular square chimney, which rises a couple of 

 feet above the ridge pole. The hearth bottom is of large 

 flat rocks, making a space 6x3ft. for the embers to roll 

 out upon. The surface of the chimney stones is unevenly 

 darkened by the smoke escaping through holes in the 

 flue. The flames rise through a sooty hemisphere black 

 as the dome of night, and now and then a vagrant spark 

 striking the tindery surface wakes up a host of bright 

 little devils, who, unaffrighted by the rusty old firedogs, 

 scamper about in their golden night shirts till the mother 

 imp puts them to bed again. The blazing logs light up 

 the cabin, and an occasional damp chunk sizzling in imi- 

 tation of the quiet kettle's voice pleasantly relieves the 

 stillness. Comfort and content now cover us as thickly 

 as will the heavy bed quilts a little later on, and but for 

 the sword of departure that must fall next week we could 

 dream away the evening hours with no intrusive thought 

 of shop or any outer world activity. The woodpile blocks 

 up the end of the room on both sides of the ctiimney, a 

 couple of cords of potential warmth that will minister to 

 rest and indolence, A reclining canvas chair of j^rimi- 

 tive construction, which proves the science of comfort to 

 be an universal and intuitive knowledge, brings to the 

 occupant mixed visions of the remote past and to-mor- 

 row's possible luck. 



Sunday, Nov. ^.— Mac started for Beaver Bog and did 

 not get there, but was home by nightfall in a condition 

 approximating to physical collapse. This is a record of 

 a pleasure ti-ip, so no account will be given of his first 

 Beaver Bog adventure, which for him shall live only in 

 bitter memory. I went to the west end of Black Moun- 

 tain, cruised around a while in a snow flurry and then 

 crossed the 7-Pond8 road to a deserted cabin, where 

 "Obiter Dicta" and a Police Gazette -were found molder- 

 ing away together in a single grave and exhibiting no 

 more antagonism that Messrs. Birrell and Fox would ex- 

 hibit under like post-mortem circumstances. Crossing 

 Alder Stream we ascended a hill, and on the way bagged 

 almost half a dozen partridges, of which G. shot five. 

 While we were sitting on the hill the afternoon passed 

 with unconscionable slowness, for every minute of the 

 two hom-s' watch brought new unhappiness to a body- 

 that would have shivered to pieces had it not been stiff- 

 ened and solidified by cold. At half -past three, when the 

 guide was timed to reappear-, heard a slight noise in the 

 woods, which was followed a moment later by a sound, 

 the like of which I had never before listened to. The first 

 thought was that the guide was dangerously amusing 

 himself at my expense, so I didn't raise my rifle. Then 

 I perceived a pair of tall gray ears through the trees, and 

 concluded that a wild jackass had come within range, 

 but as we were not after that sort of venison I still kept the 

 gun lowered, taking the precaution, however, to raise the 

 hammer in case the visitor should become belligerent. 

 Finally a short tail switched a few feet behind the ears 

 and proved the owner of the whistling bray to be a small 

 deer standing head on. Quickly overestimating the dis- 

 tance about 500 per cent. I fired three shots at a spot a 

 foot or more higher than where the head of this strange 

 creature was indistinctly seen. A mountain ash shat- 

 tered 8ft. above the deer tracks showed that the powder 

 was good and the aim (for the ash) was true. When we 

 got to camp it was mildly suggested that a good hunter 

 would not confound a jackass, a guide and a whistling 

 deer, but then first impressions sometimes fool us, as 

 Balaam found out long ago. 



Monday, Nov, =?.— Leaving Mac loafing about the camp 

 I started on the Beaver Bog trail, went around Maple 

 Hill, and then up toward Black Mountain, where I 

 watched for an hour or two. Sitting on the hillside this 

 cold, still afternoon, it required a constant effort of will 

 to keep eye and ear attentive to the signs of deer, for the 

 quiet woodland prospect, enlivened only by the quick 

 antics of the squirrels and the modest ways of the little 

 mice, induced rather to revery and nearby observation. 

 The forest here is rough and wild, the evergreens mostly 

 scrawny black spruces, with some balsams, a few hem- 

 locks, and occasionally a white cedar, the hard woods 

 being beech, maple and birch. In the open country 

 nearer the farm lands are found second growth white 

 and yellow (?) pines; and it is there the two varieties of 

 spruces intermingle their green and glaucous leaves most 

 effectively. These and the pines are lightened up by 

 groves of tamarack, whose salmon yellow fall foliage re- 

 placing their soft green summer covering will soon dis- 

 appear and leave them in their bare ugliness. But all 

 these sights were left at Stratton. On this cold hillside 

 the colors are fit only for a winter lanscape. The ashen 

 sky tones with the gray lace work of impending branches 

 and their coverlids of snow, while nearer the earth, 

 boles of spruce, rock maple and yellow birch deepen 

 the general coloring. The deciduous trees have shed 

 their leaves and the silhouettes of the branches plainly 

 mark the different species. Now a few leaves only re- 

 main on little 2ft. maple saplings, which cling to their 

 possessions as if doubtful of the coming of another spring. 

 It may be, however, that -these infant maples are only 

 copying the fault of a neighboring beech without know- 

 ing that they must ultimately give way to the law of 

 their inherited nature. The mice and squirrels are 

 about, and occasionally lesser animations come in view: 

 a belated moth looking for a yellow leaf to match its 

 wings, that it may die in a harmony of color, and 

 close behind comes a shrunk mosquito blue with cold, 

 But the guide returns from his detour around tha Mil, 



