May 9, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
373 
too slowl Fly! I'm after you!" and away they go, round 
and round the room. The female bird is so swift in her 
movements that she seems to be in three places at once. 
Her excessive independence is painful to Dick's chivalrous 
character. He tries to condescendingly provide for her, 
and she, belonging to the order of advanced females, 
resents this. 
Formerly the foundling objected to bathing in water, 
but this being Loulou's greatest luxury, she has trained 
her admirer into it. 
MisB Loulou is quite a fire worshiper. During the cool 
weather she acquired the habit of warming herself before 
the grate, standing on the fender— particularly after 
bathing in cold water. With her feathers standing out 
and her wings spread, she first dries herself on one side, 
then turns to dry the other, bending her small body to 
and fro in the most graceful manner, so that the heat may 
reach every part of her skin. This very day — April 27 — 
she is on the fender warming herself for the third time 
within one hour. 
Every evening at dusk there is a contest for a particular 
spot on one perch. Unless Dick yields to Loulou she sulks 
and makes him miserable, so that in the end she always 
has her own way. 
Although our bachelor hird is grown up he still insists, 
when free, upon his friend who rescued him from the cat 
giving him bread from between his own lips. This he 
persistently demands, alighting on the broad shoulder, 
hopping round on the long beard, and taking some 
moustache in his beak, repeating a cry that distinctly 
sounds like "pretty Dick!" 
The sparrows are not aristocrais, but they are so bright 
and clever that any one who loves nature must take a de- 
light in studying them. 
Since fair spring commenced to smile upon us we have 
provided our feathered friends with a large family man- 
sion, two stories high and containing a nesting chamber. 
But present appearances indicate that Loulou is in love 
with another fellow on the outer side of the netting which 
is fastened before the open window. She warbles her 
sweetest lay to him. We shall watch the progress of a 
tangled love affair. Alice D. Le Plongeon, 
NOTES ON THE EVENING GROSBEAKS, 
BY DR. R. W. SHUFELDT. 
Among the finest representatives of the big-billed 
finches we have in this country are the evening gros- 
beaks. My first experience with these birds was in north- 
western New Mexico some ten or eleven years ago. There 
I collected, with my sons, a good many fine specimens of 
them, together with skeletons, and made notes of habits, 
which were subsequently published in the Auk, as was 
also my account of a male and a female of this genus that 
were captured alive by me and for upward of two years 
kept in a cage. These were all specimens of the Western 
evening grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus montanus), 
a now recognized subspecies, although I reported them as 
evening grosbeaks simply, which was then the only ppecies 
described for this country (C. vespertinus). The Western 
evening grosbeak, however, had bpen recognized by 
Ridgway in 1874 (Hist. N. Am. Birds, Land Birds, I,, 449), 
and it was finally revived by Mearns in 1890 {Auk, VII., 
246), So all that I then said about the evening grosbeak 
must now be taken as referring to the above-mentioned 
Western subspecies. 
My two cage birds died eventually, and the taxidermist 
at the U. S. National Museum mounted them, and they 
are now in the exhibition cases in the ornithological de- 
partment of that institution. I have two other fine 
mounted Western evening grosbeaks in my own private 
collection that I shot and brought with me from New 
Mexico; they are especially dark ones selected from a 
large series. Of these I once made a life-size colored 
drawing, representing the birds on the partly dead limbs 
of the red cedar, of the berries of which tree they are very 
fond. Subsequently this colored drawing had quite a 
history, for after it was framed it fell into the hands of 
the Goths and Vandals — children who knew just enough 
of the value of ornithological plates to be dangerous, but 
who knew not an evening grosbeak when they saw it, or 
for the matter of that not five and twenty other Ameri- 
can birds— and mutilation was the natural consequence. 
It escaped final destruction, however, and what unthink- 
ing hands can easily accomplish in the way of vandalism 
an artist can often restore, and this is what I had to do. 
My picture is now not only restored, but has an account 
of the aforesaid vandalism appended to it in addition and 
as a matter of historical interest. A few days ago I pho- 
tographed this colored drawing ot mine, considerably 
reducing it in size, and the half-tone that illustrates the 
present contribution was made from this photograph. 
There are a number of birds in our avifauna of whose 
nesting habits we know little or nothing, and in this cat- 
egory stand the evening grosbeaks. I have written to a 
few of my friends about this matter to gain some idea of 
our present knowledge in the premises, for personally I 
have never seen either the nest or the eggs of this species. 
Mr. L. M. Loomis, who is now doing so much for us with 
the Pacific Coast seafowl, wrote me back that he had not 
even seen the species alive, and so knew personally noth- 
ing of its nidology. In the meantime comes a letter from 
Major Bendire, than whom there is no better authority in 
the country on this subject, and he writes me: "As far 
as I know there are no fully identified eggs of the evening 
grosbeak in collections, and in fact there appears to be 
little if anything known about the breeding range of this 
species, Somewhat more is known about the Western 
evening grosbeak's nesting habits, and both Mr. John 
Swinburn, formerly of Holbrock, Apache county, Ariz., 
as well as Mr. E. H. Fiske, of Yolo county, Cal. , published 
by Walter Bryant, claim to have taken their nest and 
eggs. The last record you can find in Bull. California 
Academy of Sciences, II., 8, published in 1887; the former 
in one or the early numbers of the Nuttall Bulletin or the 
Auk. You can hunt this up yourself. As far as my 
observations go, I question boch of these records and take 
little or no stock in them. I have shot young birds of C. 
v. montanus, but a few days out of the nest, near Fort Kla- 
math in the late summer of 1883, which is as near as I 
ever came to finding the nest. The Eastern species prob- 
ably breeds entirely north of the United States, in the 
mountainous regions, where little or no collecting has as 
yet been done." 
A few days after receiving this valuable letter there 
came another to me from Mr. A. W. Anthony, an author- 
ity who has contributed much to your knowledge oi 
Western ornithology. In his very interesting letter Mr. 
Anthony says: "I am afraid that the information that 
I can't give regarding O. vespertina would prove far more 
interesting. However, you are welcome to what little I 
can furnish. As for eggs, I cannot tell of a single set that 
I would like to indorse— but they may have a few for all 
that. Several years ago Mr. Bryant, of Oakland, pub- 
lished an account of a set of the Western race, and after- 
ward told me more of the details; the eggs were shaken 
from the nest and broken so that none of the fragments 
were saved. The boy who found them afterward de- 
scribed them to B. from memory, and they were from 
that data put on record. Bryant, I think, had no doubt 
as to their being true evening grosbeak, and as I do not 
at this time recall who it was that found the set, I would 
not like to discredit the discovery. In Oregon I found the 
species very abundant about the streets of Portland, mak- 
ing a very agreeable substitute for the English sparrow of 
most cities; they were remarkably tame, and especially 
about the streets where maples were used for shade trees 
were to be found all winter. They were less common 
outside of the city, but often seen throughout the 
country until March or April; they then left the 
city and were rare everywhere, though small flocks and 
pairs were seen until June or later. The last season 
spent at Beaverton, eight miles west of Portland, I saw 
a few until July; they were, as they always are, in the fir 
growth, very high up in the tops of the largest trees, and 
would have been overlooked had it not been for their 
clear, ringing call notes. I did not see a single bird near 
enough to the ground to shoot. If they bred there, and I 
think they did, they must have built fully 200ft. or more 
from the ground in thick firs. This may account for the 
lack of eggs in collections. If the species was found 
EVENING GROSBEAKS. 
after July they must have been silent, for I do not recall 
any after that month. 
"There may be even a number of authenic sets among 
the small collections on this coast, for the species breeds 
from central California north, and is so common that it 
would be strange if some one has not found them; but I 
have not seen much of the species, and know but little 
regarding it, and nothing regarding any sets that may 
possibly be in collections. 
"Mr. A, M. Ingersoll is much better posted on what is 
to be found in the collections of this coast and I will ques- 
tion him regarding them. I am sorry that I am unable 
to furnish so little data personally. 
"P. S. — Mr. Ingersoll says he does not know of a set of 
grosbeak's eggs on the coast. He is personally acquaint- 
ed with the person who found the set mentioned by Bry- 
ant and thinks it is all right." 
Now here is an opportunity for work on the part of 
some young enterprising nidologist, and there is no ques- 
tion but that good, reliable accounts, of the nesting 
habits of our species of Coccothraustes stand among other 
needed desiderata to fill in the gaps existing in the life 
histories of our North American birds. 
A Texas Deer Head. 
Lansing, Mich., April 18. — A few weeks ago I wrote 
you about the antlers of a buck which had thirty-six 
points. This was called out by a note in Forest and 
Stream, calling attention to a pair of antlers with twenty- 
six points. Mr. C. J. Davis, of Lansing, has just returned 
from a somewhat extended trip through Texas and the 
Southwest, and to-day he has left at my office a photo- 
graph taken by Barr, Main Plaza, San Antonio, of the 
head and antlera of a common Virginia buck, which is 
way ahead of anything that I have ever heard of. The 
head seems to be of about an average size, it is mounted 
on a long neck, on a shield, representing a huge star, I 
suppose an emblem, of the Lone Star State. The antlers 
are quite large, and on the shield the number of points is 
stated to be seventy-eight, I can count seventy on the 
Ehotograph. It is really a remarkable head. Such a 
ead and such antlers deserve a place among the record 
breakers of America. Julian. 
[We have already illustrated this head.J 
Soaring Birds. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
If Mr. O. H. Hampton will procure a copy of "Smith- 
sonian Contributions to Knowledge," No. 884 — "The In- 
ternal Work of the Mind," by Prof. S P. Langley— he 
will find therein a scientific discussion of the soaring of 
birds, Sextant. 
PARTRIDGE DIVING AND BUDDING. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Why is it that none of the numerous writers in the 
Forest and Stream, who are generally able and interest- 
ing, whether sportsmen or men who have made birds and 
their habits a study, has ever mentioned the habit of the 
partridge (Bonasa umbellus) as to diving and budding ? 
Perhaps the birds are so nearly exterminated that these 
have become "lost arts;" but hardly. 
The diving is done after a fall of light or dry snow, not 
less than 10 or 12in. in depth. They fly in on a slant, 
leaving a mark about the size of a man's boot. Their 
object seems to be protection from the cold, also from the 
sight of the owl or hunter. But this protection sometimes 
becomes thwir tomb, as when the snowstorm is followed 
by rain and severe cold a crust is formed that all the cap- 
tive's efforts to escape will be unavailing, unless, as some- 
times happens, they burrow or tunnel to a more protected 
spot, where the crust is thinner, as under the branches of 
a conifer or mass of clustering vines. But should rey- 
nard happen near, the poor bird's fate is soon sealed. 
They usually dive in a small clear space near a thicket, 
and should the hunter approach, the bird, hearing his 
footsteps, bursts out with a whir, scattering the snow in 
all directions, and is out of sight before the surprised 
hunter thinks of his gun, and if he does what will it 
avail ? For we boys of sixty years ago had only Queen 
Anne's arm with flint locks, and never heard nor thought 
of wing shooting; in fact, generally shot from a rest 
alongside of a tree, if nothing better offered. But don't 
think we got less game than at present, with our double- 
barreled hammerless, pistol grip, top action, patent fore 
end and Damascus steel breechloaders; for the game was 
there and we shot to kill — not for sport. 
Another thing that is seldom or never spoken of is par- 
tridge budding. This occurs in late winter or early 
springtime. But objection is made that it is in the close 
season. Very true; and if that is the reason budding 
time is not known to sportsmen of the present day, so 
much the better; for it should be strictly observed for all 
kinds of game and fish, and more than that, all spring 
shooting should be abolished by law and in practice. 
Having recently returned from Atlantic City, where 
every morning (except Sundays) the bang! bang! of duck- 
ing guns were heard,it became very annoying ; but when an 
examination of the birds killed showed that there were 
nothing but coots in the lot— a bird unfit to eat— indigna- 
tion somewhat abated. But still spring shooting is wrong 
in principle. 
When we were boys, some fifty or sixty years ago- 
more or less, rather more than less— in the days of com- 
pany and general training, when every one subject to 
military duty had to meet at a named rendezvous twice 
each year armed and equipped according to law, which 
meant musket with iron or steel ramrod and two flints, 
and knapsack, or be fined, it was not difficult for the 
boys to obtain a gun from some one to hunt partridges 
with in the budding time. 
The usual time for the birds to appear in the apple 
trees was about an hour before sunset, and if they were 
not disturbed they would fill their crops with the swelling 
apple blossom buds, and be back at their roosting places 
before dark. 
When we had learned of their visiting an orchard, and 
usually some particular tree or trees in the orchard — for 
they seemed to like the buds on some of the trees better 
than others — and the old flintlock having been previously 
loaded with 4in. of powder, wads and shot, or bits of 
lead, and secretly taken from the wooden hooks where it 
was usually kept, we would begin the silent tramp, hop- 
ing that no other boy had our knowledge of the situation 
and had stolen a march on us. If too early and no birds 
were there, and there was no other party in sight, a hid- 
ing place was sought and the coming of the birds was 
waited for with bated breath and watchful eyes. Some- 
times the birds came singly, thus giving time to reload 
after the first fire. But generally two, three or more 
came at once, and only one was killed; but it has been said 
that when several come together, shoot the one on the 
lowest branch and the others would not fly. 
Certainly this manner of killing game was very unsports- 
manlike and quite contrary to our present game laws and 
close season, which have been so tinkered as to be almost 
unintelligible; but at the time referred to game laws and 
close seasons were not known nor thought of. 
It is encouraging to think our best and truest sportsmen 
are quite generally opposed to spring shooting and have 
abandoned it. Would that the head man in our Govern- 
ment was of like opinion, or rather practice, for certainly 
every man's honest opinion must be, no spriDg shooting. 
Podgbkeepsie, May. J. H. D. 
A Few Animal Notes. 
Reading in Forest and Stream of April 18 Mr. N. D. 
Elting's account of a cat opening the door made me thinx 
of one that I saw in New Jersey in an old colonial house, 
where most of the doors had the old-fashioned thumb- 
latch. The cat was a tailless Angora and she used to open 
the doors whenever they pushed the right way. 
To-day I saw a peculiar looking squirrel; it was gray ex- 
cept for a streak of red down the back. He had lost 2in. 
of his tail and what was left was gray. In all respects 
but color he was an ordinary red squirrel or hemlock 
squirrel, as some call them. 
I believe the red squirrels often lose a part or the whole 
of their tails in fighting. Probably in being chased by an 
antagonist, they often get away with their life, but not 
their tail. I have seen them absolutely tailless, and do not 
know how else to account for it. 
I have repeatedly found chipmunks with a large grub- 
worm living in their navel, and conspicuous from the out- 
aide. 
Speaking of intelligence and instinct, I would like to 
mention the remarkable instinct of our old horse, who 
always knows when Sunday comes, and on that day 'turns 
up the street to the church. All other days he trots along 
by to the post office. He either hears the church bell ring 
or else notices we have on our best Sunday-go-to-meetin» 
clothes. ° 
Living as I do on Lake Champlain, there is no doubt in 
my mind that the smelt lives in those waters the year 
through, and in that I bear out my friend Mr. B. Bishop. 
C. D. B. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at tV 
a test by Monday, and as much eartipr as rractirabU 
