202 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 10, 1894. 



LEAD-POISONED WILDFOWL. 



New Yoke:, Feb. 24.— Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 have read with interest your articles on lead-poisoning 

 and "croup," and am glad to be able to contribute one or 

 two facts bearing on the subject. 



At Narrows Island the goose pen stands on the border 

 of a channel known as the Little Narrows, which, in times 

 of severe cold weather, is always open, and during a. 

 freeze-up is a great fly way for ducks. Gunners shooting 

 along this channel at such times have for many years 

 scattered shot over the marsh, the water and the mud. 



TJntii a year or two since the goose pen stood partly on 

 the marsh and partly over the muddy shore, and inclosed 

 no high land. The live decoy geese and ducks being un- 

 able to supply themselves with sand or gravel, were indus- 

 trious in searching through the mud for the hard particles 

 necessary to the proper digestion of their food, and until 

 recently we were constantly troubled by having our decoy 

 geese and ducks sick with the "croup." However, after 

 the death of Capt. Eyder, our former superintendent, we 

 moved and enlarged the goose pen, so that it now takes 

 in a piece of high ground, where there is some sand and 

 plenty of broken oyster shells. We also give the geese 

 the best corn we can buy and every once in a while feed 

 them with grass. As the birds can now readily obtain 

 sand and fragments of oyster shells, they supply their 

 wants with these substances and are thus much less likely 

 to take in any considerable quantity of the shot which 

 may still remain within the limits of the pen. It is of 

 course evident that to keep these captive birds in a state 

 of health they should be surrounded as nearly as possible 

 by natural conditions. 



Member op Narrows Island Club. 



[The finding of this metallic substance in the gizzard of 

 these birds calls to mind a case noticed at the time in Forest 

 and Stream, where the gizzard of the dusky grouse killed 

 in Washington Territory contained, besides the usual 

 gravel, a dozen little nuggets of gold. The contents of 

 this bird's gizzard is still in our possession.] 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I see that Mr. Hough, in Forest and Stream of the 10th, 

 touches upon the lead-poisoned canvasbacks of the Texas 

 coast. While I am not prepared to say anything about 

 the birds being placed on the Northern market I can 

 testify to the truth of the fact that the ducks on the Texas 

 coast do swallow lead shot and other metallic pellets. 



Last November a party of gentlemen, Messrs. Albert 

 Steves, Ed. Dreiss, F. Hensel and the writer, of San An- 

 tonio; Col. Sam Allen, Percy Allen and Will Dumble, of 

 Houston, camped a few days on the banks of Lake Sur- 

 prise, twenty-five miles northeast of Galveston, and any 

 of the gentlemen named above will testify to the truth of 

 the accompanying clipping from Texas Field of Decem- 

 ber, 1892. 



Ed. Dreiss, one of the. shining lights of the San Antonio Rifle Club, 

 came up to me with a bluebill drake dangling from his girdle and 

 addressed me as follows: "See here, old man. I found this duck in 

 the lake and I brought it with me. Is it fresh?" and he handed the 

 bird over for inspection. 



I examined it. Looked at its eyes, which were in good condition, 

 and I told him the bird had evidently been killed that morning, and 

 advised him to keep it. 



Upon examination of the bird after we had returned to the sloop, 

 we found that there were no visible shot marks on the duck, so we 

 picked it clean. There was not even an abrasion of the skin and the 

 duck was in fine condition— as fat as butter. The absence of shot 

 marks excited our curiosity, so we held a postmortem on the carcass. 

 Removing the gizzard, we cut it iu two and we found thirty-nine 

 pellets of shot therein. A number of the pellets had evidently been 

 digested, as the sizes and shapes clearly indicated. 



Right here we did a foolish thing, by moving ten miles up the bay 

 to the ''lone tree,' 1 where ducks were'reported plentiful as mosquitoes 

 in August. 



We found the ducks, but the country was too open and we very soon 

 concluded [that we had enough. Here, again, our friend Dreiss 

 came across the source of another mystery. 



In a little puddle he espied a bluebill drake, sitting upright. He ap- 

 proached it, saying as he went: ' Get up, you son of a duck, and I'll 

 put more shot into you than your brother had in his gizzard yester- 

 day." 



But the bird sat there and uttered not a word, which fact worried 

 Dreiss. On the bold hunter came, and when within a few feet of 

 the bird, he noticed that the duck was evidently hurt. He picked it 

 up and carried it to the boat where a minute examination disclosed 

 the fact that externally the bird was uninjured. It was picked clean, 

 its gizzard taken out and on cutting it open it was found to contain 

 fifty eight pellets of shot, some of them as large as No. 4. 



For want of a. better theory, it is accepted that the ducks, upon 

 searching the bottom of the lakes and sloughs, wherein they had been 

 feeding, came across the pellets and swallowed them as grains of 

 sand, and that they died for want of breath superinduced by too 

 much lead in the system. One man told us that they were led astray 

 and his bones lie bleaching on the swamps of West Bay. 



The shot were preserved by the writer and are mailed to 

 Forest and Stream to-day, with the recommendation 

 that an invitation be sent to doubting Thomas on the 

 banks of Lake Michigan to examine the same. 



I also have it from the market-hunters of the Lake Sur- 

 prise region that canvasbacks do not confine their metal 

 diet to lead, but often pick up bits of iron, copper, pieces 

 of percussion caps, etc. O. C. Guessaz. 



A Canadian Samson. 



Belleville, Ont,, Feb, 24.— Recently a few deer 

 strayed from the northern townships to the vicinity of 

 this city, where animals of their species have not been 

 seen for many years. It is reported that two of them, 

 which crossed the Bay of Quinte in continuance of their 

 journey southward, have been killed by some bloodthirsty 

 vandals. 



The following sensational story is furnished by the 

 Watchman, a newspaper published in the town of 'Lind- 

 say, in this district: "The strong men are not all dead 

 yet. A short time ago the cook in Gray and Millard's 

 camp at Wahnapitae was returning home from one of the 

 neighboring camps, when he was somewhat startled to 

 see two full-grown lynx standing in the pathway and 

 evidently determined to dispute the right of way with 

 him. Roderick Findal, who by the way is a regular 

 Hercules, standing 6ft. in his stockings and stoutly built 

 in proportion, was not to be daunted by two wildcats. 

 He advanced steadily upon them, but when he was about 

 15ft. away from them the largest one leaped straight at 

 his throat. Findal was too quick for it, however, for he 

 dodged, and seizing it by one of the hindlegs as it flew 

 past him he dashed its brains out against a tree. The 

 other one sprang at him, but fell a little short, and before 

 it could recover, a kick from Findal's heavy boot ended 

 its career. The boys were somewhat surprised on his 

 arrival at camp with the two animals." R. S. B. 



DOMESTICATION OF WILDFOWL, 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In England during the winter there is a bird called the 

 bean goose {Anas segetum), and I have just discovered 

 that we have a goose bean with us this winter. 



A few years ago I reported to Forest and Stream a 

 flock of thirteen wild geese {Branta canadensis) that Mr. 

 Norman Pomroy, of Lockport, secured, by their alight- 

 ing among his domestic geese during a severe storm 

 and following them into his barn, when he closed the 

 entrance. 



Some. of the wild birds mated with the domestic geese, 

 while the others held to their first loves. By clipping the 

 wings of the wild species Mr. Pomroy has succeeded in 

 keeping the original number about the same, and has 

 raised many of the hybrids for the market. I have seen 

 him on the street with a sleigh box full of them. But he 

 has learned that it does not pay to keep the hybrids for 

 breeding purposes, as they do not mate among themselves 

 nor with the full blood stock. They lay eggs, but as they 

 are not fertile they do not produce young. 



Occasionally during the spring freshets Mr. Pomroy will 

 lose a pair of the wild species, probably while they are in 

 search of a nesting place. They will follow down the 

 small brooks until they reach the Eighteen-Mile Creek, 

 where they are killed by the spring shooter, who does not 

 suspect that they are other than wild geese, until he finds 

 the clipped wings. 



But I have strayed from my story of the goose bean. 

 On Jan. 3 Mr. Pomroy brought to me a male bird of the 

 wild species, which had been killed by one of his neigh- 

 bors named Bean (this is where the goose Bean comes in). 

 Bean saw in Ms field a flock of geese and at once identi- 

 fied them as of the wild species, as he had often seen Mr. 

 Pomroy's birds while passing his place. He did not stop 

 to consider thatit was out of season for these birds to be 



1 



"?J _ '"" MR. pomroy's wild geese. 



From photo by master Pomroy. 



passing south or north, but securing his gun started 

 for them. Stealthily creeping along the fence until 

 he got as near as he thought he could possibly get 

 without alarming them (he might have walked up within 

 a rod of them), he selected the largest male bird for his 

 target and fired. The other birds did not seem to be 

 alarmed at seeing one of their companions flopping about, 

 but seemed to enjoy the circus. Not until then did it occur 

 to the goose Bean that he had shot one of his neighbor 

 Pomroy's Branta canadensis. His excuse must have been 

 a tame one when he presented the dead bird to Mr. 

 Pomroy, who, I know, has been offered a good round 

 price for the bird within the past two years, and who also 

 assured me that Mr. Bean would pay for his early wild 

 goose chase. The bird was in good condition and weighed 

 lolbs. after hanging up for two days. J. L. Davison. 

 Lockport, Feb. 32. 



| But according to the law in the case, the wild geese, 

 once out of Mr. Pomroy's own fields, are ferai naturai, 

 and may be "reduced to possession" by any one.] 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of Feb. 24 Mr. E. Hough, who "is just 

 out of live wild ducks," mentions that I am in need of 

 them. For years it has been my hobby to have our beau- 

 tiful wild ducks around me, but I have great difficulty in 

 getting them. Of wood ducks I have a fine flock and 

 bred twenty-eight young last year; my three pairs of 

 green-winged teal laid many eggs, but they were not 

 fertile. The minks killed my bluewings and my solitary 

 pintail pines for a mate. Neither redheads nor canvas- 

 backs seem to be attainable, and I find it hard to get 

 even widgeon or baldpate. 



Last summer a gentleman, whose name I had never 

 heard before, but who knew of my hobby, wrote me 

 from the South that he had several" wing-tipped ducks 

 saved for me, and that they were feeding well and 

 promised to live, but before my letter of thanks reached 

 him some animal broke into the inclosure and killed a 

 couple, while the others escaped. 



The wood duck, which bred about most ponds and 

 streams in my boyhood days, is almost unknown in the 

 Eastern States now, and visitors constantly ask of what 

 country my birds are native. I know that I would shock 

 some good men if I should say that boys with guns had 

 killed off these beautiful birds, and therefore I will only 

 refer to the fact that I look back at my own youthful 

 gunning and regret that I destroyed many things in an 

 unthinking manner that were of no use to me further 

 than to satisfy my desire to kill something, but a boy is a 

 barbarian, and I was one. 



I am trying to make amends for my early cruelty by 

 breeding some of the beautiful creaturss that are fast 

 disappearing. Fred Mather. 



Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y, 



Linnaean Society. 



A regular meeting of the society will be held at the 

 American Museum of Natural History, New York, Tues- 

 day evening, March 27, at 8 o'clock, for reports of officers 

 for 1893-1894, and election of officers for 1891-1895. 



J. A. Allen, Ph. D., (1) "The First or Nestling Plumage 

 of Various Species of North American Birds, illustrated 

 with specimens." (3) "The Effects of Civilization upon 

 the Fauna and Flora of North America." 



Arthur H. Howell, Sec'y. 



mt[* (§ittf. 



DIXIE LAND. — I. 



[From a Staff Correspondent] 

 Birds, Bottles and a Consequence. 



Chicago, 111., Feb. 7.— Oae day last December, when I 

 was busy executing the "nicely dove-tailed fabric" of a 

 Chicago business day— the sort of a day that costs hair 

 and pigment, and carries with it the soft and musical 

 tinkle of coffin nails to come— I got tired, which made 

 me angry, and therefore rebellious. Being rebellious, I 

 quit working, put my feet into the middle of the desk 

 and undertook to read a society novel by way of change. 



The society novel proved to be pretty hard work, too, 

 and of it one's recollections are vague. Tha.t there was a 

 grande dame in it, however, I remember, a leader of the 

 haute noblesse, who didn't do a thing but only drink 

 champagne before breakfast and never ate anything less 

 than a canvasback duck, and wore diamonds, oh! dear. 

 This grande dame, whom we may call my lady Ten 

 Streyck, because I forget her name, had, if my memory 

 serves (the janitor's wife has the book now), no acquaint- 

 ances but artists, lords, "journalists" and dramatic critics, 

 and as near as I can learn all these people lived on can- 

 vasback, quail and champagne. They were in the heart 

 of the city. Nearly all the lords, artists, "journalists" 

 and critics I ever fell in with sat on a stool and ate Wiener 

 wursts and coffee, anyhow Wiener wursts, but that wasn't 

 the way of the people in this book. They had birds and 

 bottles, never anything else. The book fairly reeked with 

 birds, bottles and good society. Of two-thirds of all that 

 I don't know anything, though I confess I had not sup- 

 posed that a lady in good society would wake up in the 

 night and eat terrapin, and marrons glacis, and crime de 

 menthe and things, and put in the rest of the time on 

 birds and bottles, as appears from this book to be the 

 custom. 



Couldn't Find Any Marrons. 



But the book had attached to it an idea. I wondered 

 if all the people who really do eat canvasbacks and terra- 

 pin and birds, know where all these things come from 

 and how they are obtained, and what the actual supply is 

 to-day. This, naturally, set me thinking of the trip into 

 the Texas canvasback country, and the thought of that 

 made me want to go again and spy out some more 

 country. To make it short, I did go, and did spy out 

 some country, and am now back and am going to tell 

 about it. While I am not able to say that I have found a 

 place where one can have sport at marrons glaces and 

 creme de menthe, I do say that I visited country where an 

 artist, a "journalist" or a sportsman can go and have 

 pleasure each in his own line and plenty good enough 

 for him — indeed good enough for a lord or a dramatic 

 critic — where canvasback, terrapin, oysters, quail, deer 

 and turkey can still be found, and where, moreover, one 

 can escape the heavy hand of the northern winter and so 

 cheat life of one of its terrors. 



Of this country I shall take great pleasure of writing 

 in this and subsequent issues of Forest and Stream, for 

 it appears to me that the territory visited is by all odds 

 the best sporting section now left in the United States. 

 This remark I make not altogether in regard to any one 

 narrow portion of the region traversed, but as applying 

 generally to Missouri, Arkansas, the Indian nations and 

 Texas. To be specific as to the route by which to get 

 there, I may name that taken by myself, namely, the 

 Chicago & Alton to St. Louis, the Iron Mountain road 

 from St. Louis to Texarkana, the Texas & Pacific from 

 Texarkana to Longview, the International & Great 

 Northern from Longview to San Antonio, and the San 

 Antonio & Arkansas Pass railway from San Antonio to 

 Rockport. the latter, on the Gulf Coast, being the limit of 

 the journey. This is a long trip, with a great deal of 

 country to it, but any one who makes that trip can, in 

 proper season, have the certainty of a most varied line of 

 sport. He can have, at the proper points and in proper 

 season, probably the best quail shooting in the country, 

 probably as fine duck shooting as can be had anywhere, 

 doubtless the best turkey shooting and as good deer hunt- 

 ing as he will get in the United States, good fair bass 

 fishing, and lastly, what is without question, the best 

 tarpon fishing there is anywhere on our coast. 



That these are broad statements I know very well, but 

 it is the virtue of such trips as this to show the truth or 

 the inaccuracy, of such statements, and I think the story 

 of what we saw and did will be proof enough for the 

 above claims, though of course the shifting of the game 

 supply might make the story locally more or less inaccu- 

 rate in some regards a year from now. The climate and 

 the people will not be changed in a century, let us hope. 



Out of the Ice. 



It does not take long, in these days of railroading, to 

 get out of the ice and snow into a country which Provi- 

 dence intended for human habitation. Leaving Chicago, 

 whose climate never did contemplate the dwelling here 

 of human beings, at 11 in the morning, the gliding Alton 

 train got me into St. Louis about 7 o'clock in the evening, 

 appetite and spirits rising with the thermometer. At this 

 landing I did not have a bird and a bottle, but happening 

 to fall foul of a lunch counter where the ham had a 

 juicy, untrammeled, out-for-a-trip look, and the eggs 

 were more golden and inviting than eggs ever are at 

 home, I created widespread havoc. Ten hours before I 

 would have shuddered at the thought. Hunger begins 

 when you pack your bag for a shooting trip, and increases 

 as to the square of the distance from home and work. 



At 8:30 you take the Iron Mountain out of St. Louis, 

 and in the morning you awake at Little Rock, not yet 

 twenty-four hours out of Chicago, but quite clear of the 

 snow and ice. In fact, it is only forty-five hours from 

 Chicago to San Antonio, Tex. , and there you are in para- 

 dise, only five or six hours more from the Gulf Coast. 



Little Rock. 

 At Little Rock one is hungrier than ever, and needs the 

 breakfast he gets at the Hotel Richelieu. For, of course, 

 on this trip the shooter will stop at Little Rock, for rea- 

 sons which will appear; and the proprietor of the Riche- 

 lieu being Joe Irwin, one of the best shots and best 

 posted sportsmen of his State, and moreover a Forest 

 and Stream man and a pleasant gentleman all around, 

 there is no place else in Little Rock for a shooter to think 



