Jan. 6, 1894.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



the warning, "Look out." He checked the motion of his 

 hand, but too late, and the cartridge landed in the middle 

 of the fire. With the exception of David, every one went 

 as he looked. He grabbed a stick and tried hard to 

 throw it out of the fire, but it was not to be found. Then 

 all hands awaited the explosion at a safe distance. Like 

 many another expected calamity, it was a long time 

 coming, and nothing much after it had come. It was a 

 full minute before the fire burned into the powder, 

 whereas none of us thought it would take five seconds. 

 Any one three feet from the fire would have been per- 

 fectly safe. 



The excitement had barely suhsided when a newcomer 

 arrived in camp. Mr. Judson Burke had been invited to 

 be one of our party, but through a miscarriage of the 

 notice of our starting, in the mails, he failed to connect 

 with the procession, as it were. However, he got around 

 just in time to keep the original number good. 



L. L Flower, 

 [to be concluded next week.] 



A NEW ALASKAN PIKA. 



Mr. E, W, Nelson has published in the Proceedings of 

 the Biological Society of Washington, a description of a 

 new species of pika or little chief hare from Alaska 

 which he calls the collared pika on account of the broad 

 collar of dull iron-gray separating- the yellowish-shaded 

 areas of the head and back. 



The range of this hare, according to Mr. Nelson, 

 extends from the "mountains south of Fort Yukon, about 

 the head of the Tanana River, to the Chigmit Mountains, 

 near the head of Bristol Bay." The usual habitat of the 

 animal is above timber line and its habits appear to be 

 identical with those of the "Little Chief" ha,re of the 

 mountains of the West. In size, it scarcely differs from 

 its southern relative, the average length of dried speci- 

 mens studied by the describer being about llin. 



The northwest limit of the collared pika coincides with 

 the same limit of the mountain gnat and trenches upon 

 the southern part of the range of Dall's mountain sheep. 

 A peculiarity of this Alaskan pika is the very long pelage, 

 especially in specimens from south of Fort Yukon, which 

 have the long dorsal hairs averaging nearly lin. in length. 



The pikas, chief hares, crying hares or conies are 

 curious and interesting little creatures, and have been the 

 subjects of a vast deal of writing. They live in colonies 

 in the western mountains from New Mexico and Arizona 

 nearly to the Arctic Circle, frequently the highest ranges 

 in the South and descending farther in the North. Their 

 "favorite haunts are the masses of rocky debris at the 

 heels of cliffs, where the animals find safe hiding-places 

 among the boulders, and sometimes congregate in large 

 numbers, making known their presence by squeaking 

 notes which seem to issue from under ground and are 

 very deceptive as to distance." 



"Though timid, they are unsuspicious of danger and 

 may frequently be seen perched upon the rocks, uttering 

 their peculiar crying notes, or foraging quietly in grassy 

 spots for their food, of which the provident creatures lay 

 up great stores in their rocky granaries." Owing to their 

 diminutive tails, short legs, squatting attitude, jerky 

 movements and squeaking notes they are among the 

 curiosities of animal life of the West. T. H. B. 



Washington, D. C-, Dec. 23. 



\%tt[t mti %w\ t 



THE MOOSE OF MATTAWA. 



It is quite possible that the moose, now comparatively 

 numerous around the upper Ottawa River, in Canada, are 

 the lineal descendants of those that once abounded in the 

 Adirondacks. Of course, this can never be definitely 

 proved, but there are many reasons that lead me to be- 

 lieve that such is the fact. 



Moose are, perhaps, of all the deer tribe, the most im- 

 patient of the presence of man, and invariably retire 

 before him, except in those instances where their haunts 

 are shut in on every side by settlements, as is the case 

 now in Maine, where the St. John River is dotted 

 with farms and hamlets, and so cuts off escape to the 

 north and east. The result is that those moose that still 

 inhabit Maine have been hunted back and forth until they 

 find escape impossible, and have become much less restive 

 than their Canadian km— in some instances they have 

 yarded in the immediate vicinity of railroads, where they 

 must hear daily the rattle of the passing trains. For this 

 reason the Maine or New Brunswick hunter need not be 

 so wary in chopping wood or building fires, for the 

 harassed animal has long since abandoned the idea of 

 leaving the country, for, whichever way he goes, fresh 

 human tracks, or tne sound of distant gun shots await 

 him. But in Canada, with the vast half-explored North- 

 land to retire to, he is under no such restraint. When 

 his sense of smell or hearing is offended, the slighted ani- 

 mal moves off with dignity and quickness. Northward, 

 ever northward, he is moving, until at no distant day he 

 will penetrate the stunted forests which grow beyond the 

 Height of Land and reach the range of the barren ground 

 caribou. There he will stand at bay, until the ever-rising 

 price of timber makes even those, his last strongholds, too 

 valuable to be kept from the spoiling hands of the lum- 

 berman, and some day, amid the stumps and wreckage 

 of primeval woods, a solitary moose — last survivor of the 

 grandest deer — will turn on his pursuers in sheer despair. 



They will go slowly one by one— not in herds like the 

 buffalo or elk, but scattered over a vast extent of country 

 and with even their present wariness increased many fold 

 by a grim process of natural selection, they will long defy 

 the most persistent hunter, long, but ultimately in vain. 



This is what happened in the story of their exlermination 

 in the Adirondacks, and this is what perhaps the next 

 generation will see in Canada. 



The moose in the Adirondacks disappeared, with indi- 

 vidual exceptions, in the early fifties. At that time the 

 sudden diminution of their numbers was so great that it 

 cotdd not be accounted for by any theory of ordinary ex- 

 termination—migration alone could have been the cause, 



From the natural difficulties of crossing Lake Champlain 

 and the north parts of Vermont and New Hampshire, 

 then fairly well settled, as was the strip of Quebec imme- 

 diately north of the border, it is improbable that they fled 

 eastward into the moose country of Maine, but rather 

 into Ontario by simply crossing the St. Lawrence and 

 pushing north into Muskoka, and the neighboring country. 

 At that time (in the fifties) moose abounded in that sec- 

 tion of Ontario, but soon the settlements came and the 

 moose left, going always north, until at the end of the 

 sixties they reached Mattawa and the surrounding 

 country on both banks of the Ottawa. Not that they 

 were unknown there— for there have always been a few 

 in that neighborhood — but they arrived at that time in 

 numbers, and ever since the best moose hunting has been 

 found at this point. This i-emarkable fact of their sud- 

 den arrival around Mattawa is widely known among the 

 older settlers. 



At the present day they are leaving in turn Mattawa 

 and passing Lake Temiscamangue on their northward 

 march. An Indian this fall described to the writer the 

 astonished wonder with which some twenty-five years ago 

 the local Indians listened to the tale of one of their num- 

 ber who had found a moo»e track on the east bank of 

 Temiscamangue, The excited trappers gathered round 

 the speaker with eyes glittering at the prospect of moose 

 coming into their country, but still incredulous of the 

 good tidings. But the news bearer told the truth, and 

 this was the first known appearance of moose on that 

 lake in recent times. At the present day the Little Beau 

 Cheae Lakes are about the center of moose population. 

 Every year finds them further north, at first stragglers, 

 then more and more until the main body has passed, and 



NEST OF BUFFED GROUSE. 



From photo by A. C. Mclntyre. 



then one by one they vanish. In the van are ever the 

 largest bulls, whether because the persistent hunting for 

 large horns prevents the bulls in the center and rear from 

 attaining their full growth, or whether the old bulls are 

 driven out by the younger or more vigorous ones, like the 

 rogue elephants in Ceylon. Be the reason what it may, 

 the fact remains, and this year on the northern limit of 

 moose near Lake Kwingwishe, northeast of Keepawa, the 

 writer saw_ the largest tracks of moose that have as yet 

 fallen to his lot to gaze upon. These patriarchal moose 

 are far from being the most successful fighters, for their 

 size and the complexity of their antlers render th^m un- 

 wieldy and unable to cope with young bulls with snarper 

 and less elaborate horns. The occasional moose which is 

 found dead sur le champ cThonneur after one of these 

 duels is nearly always an immense beast with sweeping 

 antlers, which had proved poor defenses against what the 

 tracks about show to have been a mere three or four-year- 

 old stripling. 



Cows, too, are sometimes killed by fighting bulls, fren- 

 zied by a general row all round, as happens when three or 

 four come together. 



The relative merits in such a duel of ranger moose and 

 swamp moose — the two sub-varieties— it would be inter- 

 esting to learn; but this and many other facts about this 

 fast-vanishing animal will, I fear, remain unsolved. 



So, too, will the precise question as to how far moose, 

 caribou and Virginia deer will intermingle when abso- 

 lutely undisturbed. In Maine and New Brunswick all 

 three live in the same district, but this may be the result 

 of the diminishing size of the forests and not the natural 

 state of things. The caribou is a migratory animal, com- 

 ing and going without apparent cause, while moose fre- 

 quent a given district, -as do deer. Bull moose, of course, 

 travel a great deal in the rutting season, but they never 

 move off in a body like caribou. 



In the west of the Province of Quebec the three animals 

 have practically separate ranges— intermingling in places, 

 but for the most part well asunder. Deer move to and 

 fro in consequence of the movements of the wolves, which 

 are ever on their trail, and which sometimes force their 

 victims into the moose countries to the north. Whether 

 the moose drive out the wolves, as the Indians believe, or 

 whether the deer do not like proximity of moose, the 

 former soon work south again and leave the moose in soli- 

 tary possession. So we have on the south the Virginia 

 deer, then next in latitude the moose, then the woodland 

 caribou, a scarce animal in this part of Quebec, and last of 

 all, beyond the Height of Land, the barren ground cari- 

 bou The center of abundance of this little-known animal 

 is near the headwaters of the Ungava River. 



In the Keepawa country, some thirty or forty miles 



north of Mattawa, Hay Bay, the northernmost arm of 

 Lake Keepawa, is occasionally visited by caribou of the 

 woodland variety, and they are now sometimes seen in 

 the country to the east. They were formerly quite 

 numerous in the country around the Bois Franc and 

 Kast-nan Lakes, but either the presence of lumbermen 

 or the advent of the moose has occasioned a migration 

 beyond the headwaters of the Ottawa, viz.: Lakes Quinze, 

 Expanse and Grand. At the present day in this part of 

 Quebec they live between these lakes and the Height of 

 Land, and it is almost impossible to find any caribou in a 

 trip from Mattawa without immense effort, 



It is a pity that some -record has not been preserved of 

 the migrations of the- different members of the deer 

 tribe in the past— for beyond the above facts, nearly 

 everything is obscure, but the evidence given and other 

 instances of the migration of moose, inclines the writer 

 very strongly to the belief that the moose of Mattawa is a 

 direct descendant of the moose of New York, and the 

 splendid antlers that now come from that country had 

 once their counterparts hanging in the cabin of the first 

 white hunters of the Adirondacks. Madison Grant. 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR AMERICA. 



Macomb, 111., Dec. 26.— Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 read with much interest the account given in your valu- 

 able journal of the sportsmen of Maine meeting at Lewis- 

 ton, called to take into consideration the feasibility of 

 introducing the foreign game birds into Maine. I have 

 had a little experience with foreign game birds, and per- 

 haps I may be able to give this association information 

 that will be interesting to them. 



In 1890 I ordered five pairs of the Francolinus vulgaris 

 or black partridge, of Rutledge & Co., Calcutta, India. 

 These birds were cooped in a small shoe box with a small 

 dish that would not hold over half a teacup of water; and 

 the result was that all died before reaching me, with the 

 exception of two males and one female, which arrived 

 here safely. They were placed in a, large wire cage. One 

 of the males soon killed the other. The pair went 

 through two of our cold winters in good order and stood 

 the climate well The female one day became frightened 

 and flew so hard against the cage that she broke her 

 wing and died. The other male died this winter from 

 cause not known. 



These birds were twice as large as our native quail and 

 truly a beautiful game bird, and would eat anything that 

 a common barnfowl would eat. My object in introduc- 

 ing so small a number was to test them and see if they 

 could stand our climate. I am confident that they can 

 stand any climate that our native qnail can stand, and 

 properly introduced into this country would do well. 

 The cost of these birds was $50 here. 



In February, 1893, I ordnred five pairs of the Caecubis 

 ehukor, or chuckor partridge, through the Hon. James 

 Currie, U. S. Consular Agent at Karachi, India. Every 

 bird arrived here in perfect health and condition after 

 being on the water and land forty-seven days while mak- 

 ing the trip. I fully intended to turn these birds loose on 

 their arrival here and have a law passed protecting them 

 for five years, but our governor not being friendly to 

 game laws vetoed the bill. Therpfore we had to keep 

 them in confinement and during the long, hot, dry sum- 

 mer they all died but one pair, which is in fine condition 

 and doing well. This hen laid eighty eggs before she 

 went to sitting. The most of these eggs were hatched 

 under bantams and the little spotted beauties would live 

 till ten days old and fall over and die. We could not find 

 any food that would agree with them. The old bird 

 hatched out seven in September and all died in the course 

 of two weeks with the exception of one, which we fed 

 on grasshoppers till he was several weeks old. As soon 

 as the cold weather came and killed the grasshoppers we 

 put him on to other food, but he soon died. I believe 

 that had these birds been turned loose where they could 

 have roamed at will, and have bad a chance to live on 

 worms, ants, bugs and insects, they would have lived 

 and done well. They are a fine game bird about the 

 size of our ruffed grouse. These is no question in my 

 mind but what these birds would flourish in this country. 

 They cost 50 cents apiece in Karachi, the coops $6. the 

 freight to New York $20, the express from New York $20. 



India seems to be the home of these game birds and has 

 a larger variety than any other country on the face of the 

 globe. This is the home of the Pavo cristatus, common 

 peacock. Thousands and hundreds of thousands of these 

 beautiful birds are found there in a wild state. The 

 ^ terocles arenarius, sand grouse, the most beautiful 

 plumaged game bird of India, would do well in the South 

 and the far West. 



The Mongolian or Chinese pheasant that was imported 

 from China to Linn county, Oregon, by Judge Denney 

 twelve years ago, have become so numerous in that State 

 that it looks as if they had come to stay like the EJnglish 

 sparrow. Twelve years ago eleven of these pheasants 

 were turned loose in Linn county. The secretary of the 

 State Board of Agriculture of Oregon writes me that he is 

 safe in saying that there are a million in his State now 

 sprung from the eleven, and they are fast spreading into 

 California and Washington. Quite a number have been 

 introduced into Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan, 

 and as far as I have been able to learn they are doing 

 well. Mr. Simpson of Elexis, this State, turned seven 

 pair loose a year ago last fall. They went through the 

 winter well and last summer they could be seen in the 

 cornfields and meadows with large flocks of young. They 

 have introduced these birds into Millon, Vt., and I under- 

 stand they are doing well in a wild state, living on birch 

 buds, mercury 33° below zero. They are strong and 

 hardy, and would stand the climate of New England. I 

 hope our Eastern sportsmen will make a move and intro- 

 duce this beautiful game bird. W. O. Blaisdell. 



Willing but Useless. 



I have a young hen, healthy, joyous, sleek and with 

 comb and wattles ruddy as the summer rose, but she is a 

 grand anomaly in the gallinaceous world. For about six 

 weeks she has gone daily to her nest, in which is a plaster 

 nest egg, has come off it cackling with apparent perfect 

 satisfaction but without leaving the sign of an egg. It is 

 the only case of the kind I ever observed. In speaking 

 of it to a lady friend she said she had a hen like this and 

 that for her uselessueps she consigned her to the pot. 



N, D. Elting, 



