Dec. 16, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



819 



Summing up now the conclusions reached iere, we 

 have as the three known species of hear peculiar to North 

 America: 



Ursus horribilis Ord. Grizzly Bear. 



Characters: Foreclaws much longer than hinder ones. Skull narrow ; 

 breadth averaging about .570 of the length; forehead slightly concave; 

 hinder molar in upper jaw very large, averaging about .107 of the 

 length of skull. 



Color: From blackish brown to reddish brown, generally with 

 paler tips to the hairs, giving a grizzled appearance, especially on the 

 back and sides. 



Size: Large; from 400 to 800lbs. 



Eange; The Rocky Mountain region from northern Mexico into the 

 British possessions and Alaska; Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains 

 of California. Known locally as "silver-tip," "cinnamon," "brown,' 

 "grizzly," "range bear" and "bald face." 



Ursus americanus Pallas. Black Beak. 



Characters: Foreclaws shorter than in the grizzly; curved and 

 pointed. Skull moderately broad; averaging about .600 of the length ; 

 forehead generally convex (occasionally somewhat concave); teeth 

 small; hinder upper molar averaging about .092 of length of skull. 



Color: Jet black, rusty black and reddish brown, or mahogany. 



Size: From 250 to 4001bs. (exceptionally larger). 



Range: The whole of the United States and Alaska; northern 

 Mexico and British possessions. Known locally as "black bear," 

 "brown bear," "cinnamon bear," "yellow bear," and "cranberry 

 bear." 



Ursus cinnamomeus C^ud. and Bach). Cinnaiion Bear. 



Characters: Foreclaws as in americanus. Skull very broad, about 

 .710 of the total length; forehead very concave; teeth large, the 

 hinder molar about .110 of the length of skull. 



Color : Rich reddish brown or bay , to pale yellowish brown (isabella) 

 the change to some extent being seasonal. 



Size: Moderately large, about 4001bs, in the specimens observed. 



Range: As far as known, the central Rocky Mountain region; per- 

 haps much further north; the Ozark Mountains, Missouri. 



Arthur Erwtn Brown. 

 Zoological Gardeit, Philadeli'hia, Nov. :30, 1893. 



Bluebirds in December. 



TaKuMA, D. C. , Dec. 3. — Notwitbstanding the fact that we 

 have aheady experienced the present winter several very 

 cold days and nights in this latitude, it has not had the 

 elfect of driving all the summer birds southward. To- 

 day in a piece of timber adjoining my place, an unusual 

 number of birds attracted my attention, and upon coming 

 closer to them I found they were robins (31. migratoria); 

 over a dozen bluebirds; besides juncos, sparrows, and two 

 or three sjiecies of the smaller woodpeckers. The bluL^- 

 birds were in fine plumage, and the sexes were about 

 equally represented. Dr. R. W. Shupeldt. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum. 



Separate papers recently issued by the National Museum 

 contain a description of a new storm petrel from western 

 Mexico and a catalogue of a collection of birds made in 

 Alaska by Mr. C. H. Townseud during the cruise of the 

 U. S. Fish Commission Steamer Albatross, in the summer 

 and autumn of 1888, by Mr. Robert Ridg way; descriptions 

 of new species of American fresh-water crabs, by Mary J. 

 Rathbun; and land shells of the genus Bulimulus in Lower 

 California, with descriptions of several new species, by 

 WiUiam Healey DaU. N. H. 



Horns of Female Caribou. 



Indian Rost, Me., Nov. 37. — ^I notice what you say (in 

 your issue of the 11th) in regard to hornless cow caribou. 

 Since reading your remarks I have inquired of, several of 

 our most reUable guides and caribou hunters about cow 

 caribou. Their estimate is that not more than one in 

 twenty of the cows have horns. I knew of six cows 

 killed from one drove, two of them had horns. I have 

 heard of only one besides those. C. J. Richardson. 



'^//f^ B^s 0^^' 



LAKE POYGAN DUCKS AND FISH. 



Being at Oshkosh, Wis., the first week in November, I 

 asked my old friend Orson Cook if there was any duck 

 shooting. " Why," said he, you're right in it. Get on the 

 steamer John Lynch at 1 :30 P. M. and go to Tustin, thirty 

 miles up the river at the head of Poygan Lake. Never 

 been there? Well, you want to go, for it is the place for 

 ducks and fish. So much wild rice up there that the mal- 

 lard's get so fat they can't fly, and the boys kill 'em with 

 paddles. Bass, pickerel and perch so plentiful it's no fun 

 to catch 'em." "Here, Cook," I interrupted, stop that now 

 and tell the truth about the ducks." "So I will. The 

 ducks are there. You can get guide, boat and decoys 

 there, and will find an excellent hotel right on the edge 

 of the shooting grounds. Go, and have a good time. I'd 

 go with you but I sprained my knee launching my yacht 

 to go on" this very trip, and have had to lose all the fall 

 .shooting." 



The next afternoon found me on the steamer, also there 

 was an old trunk bearing on its outside the scars of six 

 years' battle with the baggage men of thirty different 

 States, its interior stuffed ^vith an old corduroy suit, 

 wading boots, flannel shirts and extra heavy undercloth- 

 in"-; besides these there was a 12-gauge gun that has been 

 carried by me hundreds of days and looks like a mighty 

 old gun, but it's just as good as ever. 



A few niUes up the river the boat entered and steamed 

 across Lake Butte Des Morte (pronounced Beauty More), 

 some twelve miles long by tsvo miles wide, with many 

 thousand acres of bog and rush-grown mai-sh on either 

 side. AVhen I remarked to the captain that it looked good 

 for mallards, he said it was, but there was a gun for nearly 

 every bird. Asking if it were so at Tustin he said, -'No, 

 for tliere is no cover for shooters there. The rice is all 

 down, and no ducks can be got without decoys, so it isn't 

 much use for the natives to hunt up there. If you can 

 get Charlie Laubenhammer to take you out you will be 

 all right. He knows all about the ground and is reliable. 

 He will get you the best shooting to be had." 



At i P. M. "vve entered Lake Poygan, 12 miles long and 



miles wide, most of its shores marshy and a good deal 

 f ib shallow water. Darkjiess came on when w^ >ygj:e 



half-way through the lake, but before it came I was glad- 

 dened by the sight of acres of ducks on the . water and 

 thousands in the air. When within half a mile of Tustin 

 the boat stuck on a bar, so it was 7 P. M. before the hotel 

 was reached. The hotel was a surprise, in such a little 

 hamlet. It was strictly clean, ablaze with light and thor- 

 oughly warm, and supper could be had, even if the boat 

 was two hours late. The hostess asked if it was a hunting 

 trip, and being told it was and that my trunk was on the 

 boat, she said, "It must come to the house to-night," and 

 started a porter for it at once. She then asked if I wanted 

 breakfast early enough to get on the lake before daylight, 

 and whether a boatman had been engaged. Telling her 

 no, she said, "Charlie Laubenhammer is the best one. He 

 lives a mile from here, but I'll send the boy to get him to- 

 night." 



Next morning when I came out from breakfast Charlie 

 awaited me. Charlie is a young flaxen-haired German, 

 modest as a girl, and not "a bit of deceit or dishonesty 

 in him, always paying strict attention to his work, and 

 anxious to do all he could for me. His boat house was 

 but a few steps from the hotel, and while he got boats 

 and decoys ready I looked at the lake. It was fringed 

 with a growth of wild rice, from a quarter to three-quar- 

 ters of a mile wide, all of it now fallen down, but easily 

 to be traced by the thin ice that covered most of it. Here 

 and there in the open water were large flocks of widgeon, 

 redheads, bluebills and a few mallards, but there were 

 very few flying. Charlie said it would not be long till 

 the shooters and fishing boats would stir them up. By 

 this time he had put out two boats, or rather, wide canoes, 

 13ft. long, 3ft. wide, sharp at both ends, with about 4ft. 

 decked over at each end. They run very easy, are steady 

 enough to shoot from, and except that they will ship some 

 water in a sea, are well-nigh perfect. 



We took an observation trip of two or three miles 

 before locating, which we finally did in an old blind fifty 

 yards outside of the rice and less that half a mile from 

 the hotel. Decoys out and myself snug in the blind, 

 Charlie said, "Now I'll go round and stir them up." 

 Wherever ducks were in sight he paddled toward them, 

 pounding the decks of his boat with the paddle, and occa- 

 sionally firing his gun he soon put everything to flight 

 within a mile of us. It was evident too that other hunters 

 were afield. Guns were beginning to roar and clouds of 

 ducks took wing, till there were thousands in sight. For 

 the first half hour no ducks decoyed. They were in large 

 flocks and were very suspicious, but as they flew about 

 in an aimle.ss way the flocks got broken, and after explor- 

 ing our end of the lake and flnding no ducks but our 

 decoys began to pay attention to them, none, however, 

 coming near enough to shoot until two redheads alighted 

 two hundred yards away and swam to the decoys. It 

 was amusing to see those two ducks swimming among 

 the decoys, examining them with evident curiosity and 

 plainly suspicious. At last I concluded to verify their 

 suspicions and rose up to shoot. Oh, what a scramble 

 those ducks did make to get right away from there, but 

 one of them was too late. He did not get ten feet before 

 he fell dead into the water. The other one, by some 

 unaccountable means, got off and is probably a good 

 duck yet. 



Some time after this a lone bluebill came in and got 

 killed, next some widgeon offered a long shot and one 

 got a shot in the head; more bluebills came and got 

 away; a lone mallard came and was killed; two widgeon 

 offered a nice double and both went scot free; next came 

 a mallard, too high, but try him once, knocked out a 

 feather anyway; and look, he is coming down and half 

 alights, half falls, eighty rods away. Charlie sees it and 

 gives chase, and it turns out a long chase, but the bird is 

 bagged. A bluebill goes down with a broken wing, goes 

 under the water and comes up no more. Charlie says 

 they get tangled in the rice and can't get up, which is 

 probably true, as they frequently dive and are never 

 seen again, although there is nothing to prevent seeing 

 them if they did come up. Matters go on this way till 

 noon, sometimes several good shots are had in close suc- 

 cession and then we wait half an hour. There is no time 

 lost picking up the dead ones, as they drift back to the 

 edge of the ice and stay there. The wind has been blow- 

 ing a rough cold gale all day and I am thoroughly 

 chilled, my feet ache with cold and I call Charlie to keep 

 the blind while I go to the house for a hot dinner. He 

 collects the dead and we find thirteen that have fallen to 

 my gun and Charlie has managed to get a few besides. 



I was gone two hours at dinner, Charlie meantime 

 doing considerable shooting. Going out to him I found 

 he had bagged six, and was lamenting my absence, as 

 there had been a nice flight soon after I left. The wind 

 blew so cold that there was no comfort for us in the 

 afternoon; so after bagging four more I came in, leaving 

 Charlie to take up the decoys. Barring the cold, it was a 

 very pleasant shoot. A first-class shot would have bagged 

 about twenty- five ducks, but I consoled myself with the 

 thought that seventeen ducks were enough for one man, 

 and laid the missed shots to the water being very rough, 

 and that I had but once in ten years fired a shot from a 

 boat. 



Next day the weather was better, and although fewer 

 ducks were flying they decoyed better, and an average of 

 two diicks to each three shots was made, though there 

 was an unaccountable number of cripples, which Charlie 

 had great fun chasing, and invariably got, if they did not 

 stay under the water. Unfortunately for this days sport, 

 I had a bilious headache whicli soon made the shooting 

 intolerable, and after eighteen had been bagged put an 

 end to the sport. 



Fourteen of the ducks killed were sent to a couple of 

 friends, and thf rest were given to Charhe. He charged 

 $2 per day for himself, two boats and decoys, but said he 

 had sold the ducks (except a few given to some poor peo- 

 ple) at ten cents each, and msisted on deducting the 

 money from his wages. Those who have had much ex- 

 perience with hired guides and boatmen will agree with 

 me that it is refreshing to find one with some manhood, 

 and not wanting the earth. There may be places where 

 more shooting can be had, but there was enough there, 

 and it is seldom that a strictly good hotel right at the 

 ground and such a boatman can be had. The shooting 

 time is from Sept. 1 till Dec. 1, 



Lake Poygan is abundantly stocked with bass, pickerel 

 and perch, the latter of uuu-ual size. One of the fisher- 

 men told me that he and his boy had caught, from Aug. 1 

 to Nov. 1 this year, 200 barrels. The captain of the 

 steamer said, "During the month of Oct. I took to Osh- 

 ^Q§h{ 08 thj" ^^^^t 0 l^fWrejs 9f fish firofli; fo^gan Lake, 



and have this morning 31 barrels. The wonder is, that 

 these- waters are not depleted, but they are not. I've 

 known this lake for many years, and they were never 

 plentier than now." These figures do not sound very 

 large, but when we consider that more than 90 per cent, 

 of these are game fish, that more than 1,200 barrels are 

 taken every year, and the fish do not decrease either in 

 size or numbers, it shows that it is a good lake for fish, 

 and a good place for the angler. 



The best fishing with hook and line is right in front of 

 Tustin. Take steamer .John Lynch at Oshkosh, go to 

 Tustin (fare 50 cents), stop with Mrs. Drummer at the 

 Lake House (terms $1.50 per day), and if your visit is sea- 

 sonable, either for fish or ducks, you can be happy. 

 Take your wife too, it is an entirely suitable place for 

 ladies. "O. H. Hampton. 



LAKE CHAMPLAIN DUCKING. 



New York. Nov. 6.— Editor Forest and Stream: Have 

 just returned from a duck shooting trip on Lake Cham- 

 plain. Found the shooting good, but, as I w^as told by 

 the residents and my companions, not so good as it had 

 been for several years back. 



The best shooting is over stools and from points. The 

 custom is to build a blind of the stones that abound along 

 the shore and wait for the birds to stool. Thus we were 

 comfortable, and the broad bills and whistlers, with occa- 

 sionaUy a redhead, would come winging along and would 

 get knocked over. But there was many a one that 

 "Vainly the fowler's eye would mark its course to do it 

 harm." Generally there was a fair brace hanging on the 

 nails on the north side of the house. 



It seemed to me that the ducks were altogether too 

 wild for a region so remote, and on inquiring I was told 

 that there were several steam yachts from Rouse's Point 

 and other places on the lake that were constantly jDursu- 

 ingthem as they rested in the middle of the lake, with 

 rifles, and by this practice making them wild, eventually 

 driving them from their feeding grounds, shortening 

 their stay and preventing their return the next year. 



The people who live along the Alburg and Isle of Mott 

 shore complain of this, and say that these doings by 

 steam yachts will surely drive all the ducks away, and 

 spoil what would otherwise be a very fine shooting 

 ground. I write you this that your voice may be raised 

 to rebuke this unsportsmanlike metliod of killing, that 

 drives away a thousand ducks to one it bags; for as near 

 as I can ascertain they ncA^er have more than one or two 

 ducks to show for a day's hunt. Two or three years ago 

 there were a large number of wild geese here, but this 

 banging at them with rifles has sent them on another 

 route, and now a flock of geese over Alburg is an event 

 to be talked of. 



I trust this article will meet the eye of those who in- 

 dulge in this reprehensible practice, and. that they will 

 cease chasing and will take their seats on some point and 

 let the ducks fly up to them, and they will enjoy them- 

 selves, and while waiting for the game to come they ca,n 

 reflect on the satisfaction that a consciousness of doing 

 right always brings with it. And when the evening 

 comes they will be happier in conscience and have more 

 birds than they would get in driving them all out of the 

 country. J. R. Latham, M.D. 



[As this pursuit with boats is directly against the law, 

 why do not the aggrieved parties take steps to put the 

 steam yacht shooters in jail?] 



THE DUTY ON WILDFOWL EGGS. 



Clevel.\nd, 0., Nov. 2S.— Editor Forent and Stream: 

 In the Wflson Bill, which has just been made public, you 

 will notice that it proposes to make the yelk of eggs of 

 birds free. The duty now on eggs is 5 cents per dozen 

 and egg albumen is free. This bill if passed would make 

 the entire egg free. Albumen is used very extensively in 

 the manufacture of pepsin and other chemical prepara- 

 tions. It was formerly obtained from the eggs of common 

 hens, but as albumen from the eggs of the migratory birds 

 could be bought a great deal cheaper on account of its 

 being admitted free of duty, it has resulted in the gather- 

 ing of millions upon millions of these eggs, from which 

 the white or albumen is taken, shipped in bulk or dried 

 and sold in this country at about 25 cents per pound. 



Egg albumen is used also as an adulteration for certain 

 chemical preparations. The effect of this is to stimulate 

 the gathering of eggs of all kinds of migratory birds 

 from their hatcliing grotmds all over the Northwest. 

 Under the present duty' of 5 cents per dozen on eggs and 

 free albumen, the gathering and destruction has been 

 going on at a rate ten thousand-fold more destructive than 

 that of all the shooters in existence. Many eggs half- 

 hatched are gathered, broken and thrown away. 



It should be to the interest of all to have a prohibitory 

 tariff put un everything of this kind, or to make it a 

 criminal offense to gather or offer for sale in any shape or 

 part thereof, the eggs of migratory birds. 



Years ago ducks fn quented our marshes by the millions. 

 We can now say and could say for the past five or ten 

 years, that they came here only by the thousands, which 

 is the result of this promiscuous gathering of their eggs. 



What can we do to bring this strongly before the Ways 

 and Means Committee and our intelligent Congressmen? 

 We must work well and fast. Will you be kind enough 

 to enter into a correspondence with your several Repre- 

 sentatives in Congress, showing them the importance of 

 prohibiting the importation of these eggs. It is not a 

 political question in the least, but one that is very im- 

 portant so far as the protection of migratory birds is con- 

 cerned. 



Trusting that you will use every effort in your power 

 and use your influence in successfully bringing this before 

 the pubUc, I am with sincere regards, 



W. R. Huntington, 

 Ohio State Fish and Game Commissioner. 



Nebraska Game Grounds. 



CoiilTMBUS, Neb., Dec. 5.— Game is reported as being 

 very plentiful along the Platte River Valley, and judging 

 by the number of quail and jack rabbits I have seen hang- 

 ing up for sale in all the towns from Kearney east, I think 

 it true. Hunters, however, report birds of all kinds as 

 being very wild. An acquaintance brought in the other 

 day as the results of one day's shooting, 23 quail, 1 chicken, 

 3 jack rabbits and 4 cotton tails— pretty fair bag for one 

 gun, wasn't it? Geese are very scarce on the river and 

 flying wild. W. R, l\ 



