2B8 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 28, 1HJ*6. 
entertainment of the crowd she gave occasional exhibi- 
tions of the rapid working of the Francottegun by snap- 
ping empty shells, and her rapid loading, firing and the 
instant work of the ejector never ceased to interest the 
crowd. Dummies representing their various styles of 
loaded ammunition were also shown. 
The Rungius Paintings. 
In the Art and Loan Exhibition were some pictures by 
Mr. Carl Rungius, portraying hunting scenes in Wyoming, 
These pictures were taken from sketches made in the 
wilderness while Mr. Rungius was on a hunting trip last 
year, and portray the large game, the elk, antelope, 
scenery, etc., with rare skill and fidelity. The trophies 
were cups, medals and prizes innumerable, mementoes of 
success with pistol, rifle,shotgun and of athletic supremacy. 
Smith & Wesson. 
A full line of pistols of different sizes, models and cali- 
bers, in plain finish and in gold, in the most exquisite 
beauty of the engraver's art, was displayed in a neat case, 
the central piece of which was the Winans trophy. Their 
newest feature was a pistol with a solid frame, the work- 
manship of which is of the perfection and elegant finish 
so noticeable in all their work. This pistol is now made 
in ,32cal. and later will be made in .38. In a gallery 
within the Garden, also provided by Messrs. Smith & 
Wesson, Mr. C. S. Axtell, an expert pistol shot, gave ex- 
hibitions of the wonderful accuracy of these pistols. At 
30ft. the precision was but little short of perfect. On 
Wednesday the Springfield Smith & Wesson Revolver 
Club held a shoot in the S. & W. gallery, making a score 
of 70 out of a possible 75. The well-known expert, Sergt. 
W. E. Petty, also gave an exhibition of skillful shooting 
with a S. & W. pistol, his work at 30ft. being practically 
faultless. 
Notes. 
Besides the exhibits of taxidermy already mentioned 
the only important one was that of Mr. Thomas W. Fraine, 
of Rochester, N. Y. He showed a number of mounted 
heads and some fish mounted under glass. Mr. Frame's 
work is sufficiently well known among sportsmen, but 
especial attention may be called to the admirable face 
modeling of his caribou and his elk, which are really 
remarkable. The work about the nostrils and eyes of 
these caribou heads deserves the very highest praise. His 
fish, too, are mounted in a very artistic and pleasing 
manner. To Mr. Fraine has been turned over for mount- 
ing the mammoth sheep's head brought on from the St. 
Mary's country by Scout Jackson, who was interpreter for 
the Forest and STREAM^Indian camp. 
Natoka, the Indian woman, was unanimously voted a 
beauty. Apparently she did not enjoy the occasion so 
much as the others, but sat for the most part silent and 
with downcast eyes, though when apart from the crowds 
she was less constrained and appeared to be pleased with 
the novelties that surrounded her. 
The largest mountain sheep head and horns on earth 
were at the Sportsmen's Exposition, and they now belong 
near Forest and Stream. The measurement made by 
an expert put the girth at butt of the horns at l&Hn. 
The largest pair recorded heretofore are 17fin., so far as 
the writer at this time knows. The length of the horns 
is 38in. on the least liberal measurement possible. The 
ends of the horns are much battered. In absolute mas- 
siveness it is likely this head has "never had any equal 
since the days of recorded sportsmanship. This was the 
unqualified belief of dozens of big-game shooters who 
admired it at the Exposition. The ram which grew these 
great horns was about 8 years old, and was killed by Wm. 
Jackson about thirty miles from his home in the Piegan 
reservation, a few days before he left for the East. He 
presented the head to a member of the Forest and 
Stream staff and it will henceforth ornament the Western 
office of this paper at Chicago. Several gentlemen wished 
to buy this head, and one offered $100 a number of times, 
but "Billy" Jackson laughed at them and said so good a 
head was not to be sold at all, but given away. Naturally 
the happy man is thankful. 
W. H. Wright, of Missoula, Mont., and Ira D:dge, of 
Cora, Wyo., were among the Rocky Mountain guides 
present, and both declared they would be on hand next 
year. 
Jack Monroe, mountain guide in the St. Mary's country, 
of Montana, was one of the Forest and Stream Montana 
party. Jack at once proceeded to make himself uncom- 
fortable by buying a "hard hat" (Derby), which brought 
him a lot of chaffing from New York friends. He has 
guided a great many gentlemen of this city who looked 
him up when he was here. Not one of these but spoke 
most highly of him, and if Jack is as honest as he looks 
and talks— and everybody says he is— he is the right sort 
to tie to. The only thing yet discovered against his 
character is that hard hat. 
"Billy" Jackson, interpreter and joint leader of the 
party of Indians, made a distinctly favorable impression 
at the Exposition and everywhere else. He was good- 
natured all the time, though his arms must have ached 
with holding Natoye, the baby, up so the crowd could 
see her. Billy Jackson is one of the Piegan tribe, and 
lives next door to the top of the Continent. It was a wise 
and fortunate choice that made him one of the party. 
Like many of his kind, Billy has little to say of himself, 
but those who know him know he can tell a true story of 
many a wild adventure in the West that is gone. 
Mr. Thos. W. Fraine, the Rochester taxidermist, was so 
unfortunate as to have a fine mounted specimen, a moun- 
tain sheep head, stolen from his exhibit the night after 
the Exposition closed. No trace whatever had been ob- 
tained of it at last accounts, and the disappearance was 
highly mysterious. 
They did not Belong There. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Do you consider it in accordance with "the eternal fit- 
ness of things" that among the exhibits at the Sportsmen's 
Exhibition, just closed, there should be displayed the 
gaudy and "gobby" belts awarded or offered to profes- 
pionai pugilists? Hideous and inartistic in themselves, 
their presence in such a place was an insult to every true 
sportsman, as implying that his pursuits and practices are 
in any way akin to those of the degraded ruffians whose 
vocation is to thump each other's carcasses for pelf. 
Why did it not occur to whoever admitted these articles 
to the show to invite a display of marked cards, thimble- 
rig apparatus and doctored faro-boxes— all of which 
would have been of equal interest to "sports," between 
whom and sportsmen some one would seem to have been 
unable to distinguish? The tools of the professional gam- 
bler would be no more out of place in such an exhibition 
than the trophies of the prize-fighter, and I trust the 
pleasure of visitors to the next Sportsmen's Exhibition 
will not be marred through a repetition of the mistake 
(to put it mildly) that was made in this instance. 
Truthful James. 
Killing Song Birds for Specimens. 
Michigan City, Ind.— Editor Forest and Stream: The 
destruction of bird and animal life recorded in your 
columns is most disheartening. That a species is rarely 
seen seems with many of your correspondents quite a suf- 
ficient reason for killing every unfortunate specimen they 
come across. Some weeks ago a Mr. A. Hall related in a 
letter to Forest and Stream with apparent complacency : 
"I killed a fine male mockingbird, which I saw feeding 
upon the berries of a. red cedar that stands in my yard." 
This was in Ohio! Has that State no law against the kill- 
ing of song birds? Or does the self-confessed murderer of 
the most lovely of all American feathered songsters 
represent the sentiment of the people there in regard to 
such matters? 
That much of the killing of rare specimens is done for 
or by collectors does not seem to me a valid excuse. 
An ignorant poor man who shoots small birds for the 
pot seems to me not so blameworthy as a man who does 
so to secure specimens for stuffing, or to verify the fact 
that a certain species is sometimes found in a particular 
locality. 
Because a harmless bird or animal is rare ought to be 
the strongest of all reasons for leaving it unmolested, and 
as far as possible protecting it. I cannot understand a 
man's telling how he got his gun and tried to kill the 
only specimen of a passenger pigeon he had seen in 
twenty years, as one of your correspondents did not long 
ago. 
Even the killing of a pair of golden eagles, as described 
by Bass, or of the peregrine falcon mentioned -by Mr. 
Holman, is to be deplored on account of the rarity of 
these birds. The damage they do reckoned in money is 
trifling. 
I sincerely trust a better sentiment will in time prevail 
in regard to such matters, but it can only be brought 
about by such people as Forest and Stream readers and 
correspondents setting a good example and following that 
up by precept upon precept and line upon line. 
When every man who claims to be a true sportsman 
limits his shooting to legitimate game in reasonable quan- 
tities, and only in lawful season, and hunts harmless rare 
birds or animals with no more deadly weapon than a field 
glass or a kodak, he will be teaching an impressive object 
lesson which cannot fail to be followed by good results. 
Greenhurst. 
The Florida Flume Bird Law. 
The attention of the Advocate has been called to the 
fact that people are still killing plume birds along the 
East Coast, in direct defiance of the laws of the State, 
which have made the killing or trafficking in of any 
crane, egret, heron, ibis or curlew a misdemeanor, punish- 
able by a fine not exceeding $300, or imprisonment in the 
county jail for a period not exceeding six months. The 
continued disregard of this law will necessarily end in the 
extermination of those birds, without which Florida will 
lose half its charm. There was a time when the shores of 
the Indian River abounded with all kinds of water birds, 
which might be seen lazily flopping along the margin or 
resting on the trees which fine its banks. Where 
formerly there were a hundred, it is now a rare occurrence 
to see one, and this is occasioned partly by their wanton 
destruction by soi-disant sportsmen, who shoot at any- 
thing in sight for the sake of killing it, frequently not 
even troubling to pick up their quarry when slaughtered, 
and partly by the desire of hunters to obtain the plumes, 
aided by the law-breakers who buy them. That excellent 
sporting journal, Forest and Stream, has issued a warn- 
ing, calling attention to this matter, in which "officers of 
the law are urged to strict enforcement of the statute; and 
the co-operation is asked of all good citizens who desire 
to stop the wholesale destruction of plume birds before 
they shall become extinct." — Indian River Advocate, 
Titusville, Fla. 
A Looted Audubon. 
The report that a copy of Audubon's "Birds of Amer- 
ica," which was sold in this city recently for $1,800, had 
been stolen during the Civil War from its possessor in the 
South, has called out this note from our contributor Mr. 
J. L. Davison, of Lockport, N. Y. : 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The late Dr. D. H. Murphy, of Royalton, was in the 
Union army. He once told me that while going from 
Atlanta to the sea with Sherman, at or near some place in 
South Carolina, they looted and burned a house, and he 
took a set of Audubon's "Birds of America" from the 
house; but the books were stolen from him before reach- 
ing Washington. I have a memorandum somewhere 
that I made at the time, giving the name of the nearby 
place, but I cannot lay my hand on it just now. At first 
I thought it might be this same set of books, but as Sher- 
man's army did not pass through Natchez, MisB., they 
can hardly be the same. 
Locked Moose Antlers. 
Toronto, Can. — In the spring of 1895 the Government 
rangers found in Algonquin National Park on the banks 
of a tributarry of the Petawawa the carcasses of two bull 
moose, which had lain there during the whole of the 
winter. The animals had met their death in a singular 
way. During the rutting season in the autumn of 1894, 
at which time the bulls are exceedingly fierce, they had 
met in what proved to be a fight to a finish for both. In 
the struggle their horns became interlocked in such a 
way that they could not disengage them, and the lordly 
creatures succumbed, not to each other's prowess, but by 
a slower process of starvation. Their immense antlers, 
locked together as they were found in death, now grace 
one of the rooms of the Department of Crown Lands at 
Toronto. T, 
A Goose Races with a Locomotive. 
Erie and Pittsburg trainmen are talking about the curi- 
ous race between an express train and a wild goose, which 
occurred the other day between Shadeland and Summit. 
The veteran engineer, Tony Welsh, was at the throttle, and 
when the Canadian honker came lazily soaring alongside 
the engine and challenged the iron steed to keep up with 
him, Tony turned on the steam and made it necessary for 
the goose to flap his wings a little harder, and after getting 
out of sight of the train would settle down in a field and 
wait for the express to catch up with him. He waited at 
Springboro, Conneautville and Summit, and starting after 
the train from these points flew close to the coach win- 
dows in full view of all the passengers, who crowded over 
to that side of the train to observe the queer actions of 
the bird. When the goose at one time got close to the 
engine, Engineer Welsh pulled the whistle, and the bird 
was so badly scared that he turned over in the air like a 
tumbling pigeon. — Pittsburg Post. 
A New Hampshire Woodcock March Brood. 
Nashua, N. H., March 18. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
A circumstance has just come to my notice which is so 
singular (to me at least) that it seems worthy of record. 
On the 13th of the present month Mr. Oliver Dodge, of 
this city, came upon a brood of woodcock, just hatched 
apparently. They were found on the south slope of a hill 
in the town of Brookline, N. H., some twelve miles from 
here. Is not this a very unusual occurrence for this lati- 
tude? Mr. Dodge is perfectly familiar with all our birds, 
a close observer, and could not have been mistaken. We 
have had a rather open winter. Could it be possible that 
woodcock have remained here all winter? I have known 
of snipe wintering here, but never woodcock. 
This bh'd must have endured very severe weather while 
sitting, as the thermometer has been at or near zero the 
latter part of February. W. H. B. 
Spring Migrants Along the Sound. 
New Rochelle, N. Y. , March 21.— On account of the 
cold and unseasonable weather the migrants are very 
late in arriving this spring. It was only the other night 
(March 19) that our old noisy neighbors, the purple 
grackles, arrived. For the last two years they arrived 
about March 9-10, but this year they are very late and 
then only in small numbers. Yesterday afternoon the 
robins and song sparrows were quite plentiful around the 
house and the friendly little chipping sparrows were with 
them also. In the morning I saw a mixed flock of cow- 
birds and red-winged blackbirds, but it was not a large 
one. I have not observed any phosbes yet. 
Edwin S. Haines. 
Starlings in Pelham Park. 
Seeing: Mr. E. S. Haines's article in your valuable paper, 
I can tell him where to find a nest of starlings in Pelham 
Bay Park. If the gentleman will go to Mr. H. Castrap's 
boat house, on the City Island road, he will find in front 
of his house an oak tree about 25ft. off the grounds, and 
he will see from the door a branch with a hole in it, which 
contains every year a nest probably of the same pair, and - 
in due season he may enjoy the sight of the old birds 
feeding their young. I have watched them for the last 
three seasons, as did Mr. Castrap. 
Albert W. Schiele. 
March Robins on Staten Island. 
Brooklyn, N. Y., March 15. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
While tramping on Staten Island yesterday (March 14) I 
found a large flock of robins in the woods west of Four 
Corners. In the same woods was a large flock of purple 
finches in full song. 
Numerous scattered individuals of bluebirds and -purple 
grackles were seen besides the usual winter birds. The 
songs of the robins and song sparrows, combined with the 
warm sunshine, made it feel like spring, though the snow 
and ice belied it. Herbert Wheaton Congdon. 
Deer Antlers. 
Oroville, Okanogan County, Wash., March 7. — Editor 
Forest and Stream: To-day my Indian helper killed a 
large black-tailed buck, whose horns were solid on its 
head — that is, they were solid enough to hand the deer 
in by. He shot at another who had a very big pair. 
The deer appear to be very scarce around Mount Bona- 
parte this spring, as he had to hunt four days before he 
got this one. Lew Wilmot. 
THE OLD RIFLE. 
How sweet to my heart are the thoughts of my young days, 
When visions of boyhood to memory cornel 
The valleys, the brooks and the slightly-trod pathways 
That ran through the woodlands not far from my home. 
The meadows and trees where the spring birds, like lovers, 
Were billing so of t— but to tell you the truth, 
Though I loved the old homestead, its fields and its covers, 
I worshipped the rifle I owned when a youth— 
The old Kaintuck rifle, the hair-triggered rifle, 
The long-barreled rifle I owned when a youth. 
That long muzzleloader I'd swing on my shoulder, 
As oft through the forests I wandered alone; 
Or trailed it while standing near tree, bush or boulder, 
To look for a squirrel on stump, fence or stone. 
If game showed in Bight when I had "old Kaintucky," 
I cocked it, then took a deliberate aim; 
Althought but a youth, I in hunting was lucky, 
For when that gun spoke I was sure of my game. 
The heavy old rifle, the long-barreled rifle, 
The hair-triggered rifle that brought down the game. 
Many long years have passed since I owned that old treasure, 
And shotguns and rifles in numbers I've had; 
But none have I since had that gave aB much pleasure 
To me as this one that I owned when a lad. 
How often I've thought of those hunts in the wildwood 1 
And tears of regret sometimes silently flow, 
When memory turns to the home of my childhood, 
And to the old rifle I owned long ago — 
The old muzzleloading and two-triggered rifle, 
The old Kaintuck rifle I owned long ago. A. L. L. 
