April 13, 1895. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
285 
would have it, the next rise we had was a be"y that got 
up wild in a corn field about forty yards from us. The 
others did not shoot, but just for fun I turned the pump 
gun loose at a bird on the out edge of the bevy, and 
killed it stone dead at a distance of fifty-five or sixty 
yards. It seemed so small at that distance I could hardly 
see it over the gun. 
"Well," said Irby, "that's the furthest I ever saw a 
quail killed in my life." (Nor did I ever see one killed so 
far.) 
"It's that kind of a gun." I told him calmly. "You 
don't know how to shoot it, that's all." And really I got 
the next bird I shot at with it, too, it happening to be 
a very long shot. 
"That settles it," said Irby, "that's the gun for you. 
This un's good enough for me." .And he stuck to the 
cylinder and killed his four straight with it, very hand- 
somely. So we had a nice little shoot, and spreading out 
the fat, brown birds nicely on a platter, fifteen I believe 
we had, we took them proudly in to Mr. Orgill to show 
him what nice thoroughbred quail he raised. And Mr. 
Orgill told us that if we would come again when it was 
not so extremely dry,he would take us out for a run with 
his beagles, which pleasure I don't doubt Irby Bennett 
will some day have, for if he takes a notion to go out to 
the Cedars and live for a while, he surely will go. 
MR. BENNETT AND THE PINK TEA.. 
' While I am talking about Irby Bennett I might as well 
give all the facts about him, and not cover anything up. 
You see, Irby is a red-hot society man. At the hour of 
twelve each day he changes his hat and clothes, and 
when the hour of six strikes he promptly gets into even- 
ing clothes, no matter where he is. These habits make 
him of value at all the social functions of his city, of 
which there are a great many, for Memphis is nothing if 
not advanced. Well, anyhow, Irby was incited to a 
pink tea, or something of that sort, just at the time Tom 
Divine and I wanted him to go out quail shooting with 
us. We ware going down to Batesville, Mississippi, on an 
early morning train, and Irby had promised to go along, 
till this pink tea came up, set for the day of the hunt. 
Irby said he couldn't jump the pink tea without getting 
a divorce, but we told him that, while we hated to see as 
nice a home as his broken up, we couldn't let him off 
from the hunt. We reasoned with him all the afternoon, 
and finally he gave in and said he would go with us. It 
was a case of love and duty, an love won, at least tem- 
porarily. But though Irby said when he left us that he 
was going after a lawyer to see about a release from the 
engagement, he never came back. At the depot the fol- 
lowing morning he was absent. So Tom Divine and I 
went on without him, and left him to his pink tea. 
Therefore, when we got back we called him no longer 
Irby Bennett but "I. Willy Bennett," neither would we 
let him eat any of the birds we sent up to his house. This 
stern justice I hope will be noted by all readers who hesi- 
tate between a quail hunt and a social occasion such as 
the above. 
A QUAlL SHOOT AT BATESVILLE. 
But I suppose a great many people will want to know 
about the trip Mr. Divine and myself had t© Batesville, 
how many birds we killed, how many were left, etc. In 
deference to these, 1 will dignify our little sortie with a 
description. "We got to Batesville about noon, for the 
distance is only about fifty or sixty miles from Memphis, 
We struck a freight train which had deliberate habits. 
As we had to be back at Memphis the next morning, this 
left us only half a day for our shoot. We promptly got 
a couple of saddle horses and a small boy, who rode be- 
hind one of the saddles and filled the responsible position 
of marker and horse-holder in general. The country I 
found to be just rolling enough to be a good quail 
country, and not so broken as to make it hard to mark 
the bevies down. There was the usual variety of cotton, 
oorn, sedge and thicket, atid as usual, the entire country 
was full of quail. We fode along slowly over the fields, 
and the dogs did most of the work, though it was no 
Work at all for them to find birds, and indeed we got a 
nice double point on a fine bevy by the roadside, hardly a 
half mile out from town. (We had Mr. Allen's Jess and 
Mr. Sim's setter Jim out again, and as usual they did 
very handsome work.) We started in all. twelve big full 
bevies during our short hunt that evening, and picked up 
a very nice little bag before dusk, hardly having walked 
200 yards the whole afternoon. This horseback method 
is the commonest form of quail shooting in the South, 
and it has very much in its favor. In the North it is 
rare as a form of sport, for many reasons. The hunter 
who goes after quail on foot in the fresh autumn weather 
of the North, might be very glad to crawl aboard a horse 
before he had walked all day in the warm air of the 
average quail shooting day of this region, where the 
horse is held a part of the equipment. With the horse, 
he is able to thoroughly enjoy every moment of his out- 
ing. Our shoot was in late November, yet part of the 
time we were obliged to shoot in the lightest possible 
dress, it Was so warm. , 
Batesville I should call one of the really great quail 
countries, and of course it is not so much shot over as the 
ground immediately about the big city of Memphis. All 
that region is still full of quail and I hope it will always 
remain so, as indeed it always will if the present objec- 
tion to market shooting is al ways left valid. At Batesville 
We found some posted land, and I think that had not Mr, 
Divine been acquainted there, we might have had more 
trouble on that head. The country was very dry, and 
the chief objection to shooters seemed to be the tear ot 
fire from gun wads. In such heavy, dry cover, it would 
take but a few moments for a fire to wipe out a farm, 
and a shooter careless with a match might start a fare, 
though, I think, the modern wad could hardly be heid 
an element of danger such as the newspaper wadding of 
the negro hunter. A stranger going into that country to 
shoot might have a little trouble in getting in over some 
of the belt grounds, but once certified to by the right men, 
he would be received with the utmost courtesy. Indeed. 
I saw nothing but the best possible exemplification of 
this disposition at any time or any place, ^ th . ^^P: 
tion, which occurred in Texas, and that not at the hands 
of a native Southerner. I am sincere in my aeration 
of the Southern sportsmanship, and believe that, the bet- 
ter and more gracious principles of sport are understood 
and practiced there as no where elseimthis 9 0 ^try- 
yond doubt it is true that the "game hog" » not com- 
mon there as in the North, unless it be true that my ex- 
periences"'and'inquiries felLamong exceptional surround- 
ings. rheard"so'little^bragging*about;,big bags, of killing 
all the birds of a bevy,'of being a successful bird butcher, 
in short — and saw so much of 'an easier way of looking at 
the pleasures of the field. f I have some acquaintances 
herein Chicago, who never If ail T to tell me with expan- 
sion of the chest.how much game'they killed at such and 
such a time, how many hundred pounds of fish they have 
taken. No doubt they feel they have done well and as a 
sportsman should, and no doubt, too, the desire to crowd 
the limit is a very human one. But I cannot help think- 
ing they would lose much of their inspiration and change 
many of their habits if they were thrown for a time in 
associations with their brethren of the lower half of the 
country, where the game has been kept abundant in 
spite of the march of the years. Of course, the condi- 
tions for the increase of game are far more favorable in 
the South than in the North, but I cannot think the 
greater abundance is due to these natural conditions alone, 
and I believe it a fair statement to say that the members 
of the craft who live north of the Ohio can not be 
harmed, and might be benefitted by a study of the condi- 
tions that obtain in the sportmanship of the Southern 
side. 
My Batesville trip was the last shoot I had about Mem- 
phis, and all too soon I found my nine days gone and was 
saying, good-bye to my Memphis friends, then to take 
train for New Orleans. At that city I was to meet still 
another party of friends and start for the coast country 
of Texas to see something more of this big land of 
America, and incidentally to get tangled up with the 
ducks of the Gulf country. E. Hough. 
lets by aboutHfty~men armed with rifles, who ran down 
the slope and surrounded the thicket in which the jaguar 
was; the jaguar charged through the line of men at the 
first fire and almost disemboweled a dog in its death- 
agony. As it was about dinner time, the deer killed by 
the jaguar came in very handy. The party was the 
Elgin party of state surveyors, from Waco, Texas, which 
operated in the Panhandle when Ft. Griffin was the most 
western settlement. 
The Washington Beaver. 
The shipment of about a dozen beaver brought on last 
winter from the Yellowstone National Park to the Na- 
tional Zoological Park in Washington, reached there in 
good order, and the animals appear to be doing well and 
to be taking kindly to their new surroundings. They 
have dug long bank holes in the ground bordering the 
stream which is their home, have built three dams on 
this creek, and are now engaged in the construction of a 
house. There is every probability that they will breed 
this season, and if they do so, a good stock of beaver will 
be established in the Zoological Park. 
As yet they are not sufficiently at home to continue 
their work during the day, but there is no doubt that 
after a time they will become so accustomed to their new 
surroundings and to the presence of spectators, that they 
will be seen at wcrk feeding and at play during the day- 
light hours, at least in the morning and at evening. It 
is certain that at some points in the Yellowstone National 
Park the beaver have become so tame that they are 
often seen in the daytime. 
The success which attended the capture, transportation 
and turning out of these beaver is verv gratifying, and 
this success is due entirely to the interest, energy and 
good judgment of Mr. Elwood Hofer, in whose hands the 
matter has been from the beginning. 
A Jaguar in New Mexico. 
The range of the jaguar is usually given as north to the 
Rio Grande, or a short distance beyond if into Texas. 
Instances are recorded of its having occurred as far north 
as the Medina River in that State, but it is u«ually re- 
garded as rare in Texas, though southward its range ex- 
tends as far as Patagonia. We recall no instance of its 
occurrence in Northern Texas, and are inclined to think 
that the capture mentioned below, if authentic, is the 
most northerly record for this species. We phould be 
glad to receive from any of our readers who may have 
information bearing on this subject, notes on the jagusr 
or its range. 
Mr. Herbert Brown sends us the following account, 
taken from the Prescott, Arizona, Courier:— Some weeks 
ago, Peter White, a hunter of some celebrity, better 
known as "Bear Sign Pete," was hunting in the vicinity 
of Willow Springs, in this county, and it came to his 
knowledge that some animal had been killing full grown 
cattle in the neighborhood; something unusual, as the 
mountain lion usually confines his depredations to colts 
and calves. Proceeding with his dog and gun to the 
locality, White found eight carcasses of cattle, one of 
them apparently recently killed; the head was severed 
from each carcass, almost as clean as if done with an axe. 
Proceeding from this point up into the rocks near by, he 
found a freshly killed and partly devoured calf. About 
this time his dogs dashed around excitedly as if on a fresh 
trail and he was almost deafened by a strange and terrible 
roar, a deep sound of "pu pu." Simultaneously he 
looked in th« direction of the sound and threw his Win- 
chester to his shoulder, and none too soon, for dashing 
toward him came a great panther-like animal, which 
rolled almost against him as the smoke cleared from 
two rapid shots from his rifle. Both shots took effect, 
and the animal's brains were entirely torn out by the 
bullets. In his twenty-one years' experience as a hunter, 
White bad never seen an animal like the one before him. 
It was a heavy-set, short-legged, broad- jawed animal, 
weighing about £50 pounds. Its four canine teeth are 
over two inches in length, are of scimeter shape, project- 
ing below the lower jaw and above the lip on either side of 
the nose on the upper jaw. The head is broader than that 
of a panther. The animal was of a light yellow color, the 
fore part of the body thickly covered with black spots and 
rosettes of spots down the sides; its long leopard-like tail 
was black ringed. The animal could not stand high, as 
its legs were short and large; its claws are more on the 
order of the talon of an eagle than those of the cat tribe. 
White brought the hide to Prescott for inspection, and 
the general verdict was that it was the hide of a leopard, 
as some of these animals are said to have been killed in 
Tonto Basin years back. The writer took a look at the 
hide yesterday and can say that, beyond all question, it is 
that of a jaguar, an animal which ranges from the south- 
western part of the L" nited States to as far south as Brazil. 
When a boy, the writer was on the ground at the killing 
of one of these animals in the Panhandle of Texas, just 
after it had leaped from a cliff upon a deer in the plain 
below. The deer's back and neck were both broken by 
the jaguar, which, in a few minutes, was riddled with bul- 
Mongolian Pheasants in Michigan. 
Holland, Mich., April 3.— The first Mongolian pheas" 
ants raised in Michigan, or at least the first 1 know of 
raised in the State, were liberated here last week; live 
pairs being turned out in one place. 
Two pairs were first let out last Wednesday. Brush 
was placed against a log, leaving a space underneath in 
which it was the intention to place the birds and allow 
them to come out when they pleased. A peck of wheat 
was scattered around near^ But the pheasants did not 
seem to understand our plans, for as soon as I had placed, 
one pair under the brush-pile they ran out and flew, the 
other pair escaping from the box in which we had 
brought the birds. The last pair flew south for about 200 
yards and alighted about 100 feet apart. The others went 
north for about the same distance, coming down 300 feet 
apart. They did not fly near the ground, but at a height 
of thirty feet. 
The other three pairs were put out Tuesday in the same 
spot where the first had been liberated. We left these 
in the box, only removing a board from the front. They 
could thus get out when they wanted to, and without be- 
ing frightened. Plenty of wheat was left for them to feed 
on for a few days. We bought some wheat from the 
farmer on whose land the pheasants were liberated , and 
he will put out some each morning where they will be 
liable to find it. We think it advisable to feed the 
birds for a couple of months until they learn to find their 
own feed. 
We have kept seven here, and expect to have fifty 
young pheasants to put into the .. oods in September. 
Why do not more of you sportsmen do the same as we 
are doing? In every almost town and village there are 
enough who shoot, who, if they would club together, 
could purchase a few of these birds and either turn them 
out at once or breed them as I have done. They can be 
bought in the fall at $2.50 per bird, in the spring at $5 
each, or a setting of eggs for $5. Our club will sell a few 
eggs this spring to anyone who desires to start them in 
his locality. We will not dispose of any to those who 
mean to keep the produce, as our only desire is to see 
these birds tried in as many places as possible. We do 
not doubt that they will some day be plentiful enough 
to furnish excellent sport. I should be glad to reply to all 
inquiries or give any information in my power in regard 
to pheasants or pheasant rearing. 
A ItTHUE G. BaTJMGARTEL. 
Early Arrivals on Long Island Sound. 
New Rochelle, N. Y., March 30. — It seems that migra- 
tory birds along the coast choose three great highways 
of migration, the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers and 
Long Island Sound. 
A great many of the birds common on the Hudson, as 
the cardinal, are very rare on the sound. I have lately 
captured several birds which are rare at this season of 
the year, having arrived some three weeks or a month 
ahead of time. On Feb. 22 I captured a purple finch 
(Carpodacus purpureus) in spring plumage. On Feb. 2 . 
I saw amocking bird (Mimus polyglottos) but did not 
secure it, as I had only a ride with me. It was probably 
an escaped cage- bird. On March 23 1 shot a myrtle 
warbler (Dendroica coronata.) The warblers as a class 
do not come north until May. On March 30 I got a 
ruby-crowned kinglet (Regulus calendula) which arrives 
generally with the myrtle warblers. E, J. H. 
Mother Carey's Chicken Island. 
^Oswego, N. Y. 5 April 4. — I think your readers would 
be interested in the fact that a Proscellaria pelagica, 
stormy petrel, or Mother Gary's chicken, was killed here 
a few weeks ago. It is odd that so distinctly a salt 
water bird should : have foun 1 its way so far inland. It 
seemed in good condition aud was fat. | E. L, L. 
Starlings in Confinement. 
Edi'or Forest and Stream: , 
In a, recent issue ot your valuable paper I noticed an 
interesting account of a flock of starlings seen near Flat- 
bush, Long Island. 
This interested me greatly, as my friend and neighbor, 
B. A Over beck, of Alleghany, Pa., has quite a flock of 
them that he keeps in a cage. The cage is aboxit fifty 
feet long and thirty feet wide. The rear to the north and 
west is boarded up and roofed. Mr. Overbeck recently 
visited the home of his childhood in Northern Germany, 
and while there fancied the blithe little fellows and 
brought twenty of them home with him. 
The starling is about the size of our red epauletted 
black-bird. 
During the winter the plumage changes from the beau- 
tiful gold and bronze to a sooty black, but when the snow 
is gone and the blossoms are on the trees, a lovelier iris 
comes to the burnished dove. The dull black changes to 
a beautiful bronze, and the little dull yellow stars that are 
dottei all over his body glow and sparkle like diamonds. 
In this flock almost all are males, and the lady birds avail 
themselves of the privilege of selecting their husbands. 
In making her selection, the chief point of merit con- 
sidered is the singing. The birl that sings best is most 
sought after as a husband. 
One magnificent singer received the attention of two 
ladies of the cage, and they did "battle royal" to de- 
termine which should win the affections of this gallant 
bird. No more jealousy, hatred or backbiting was ever 
shown by the fairest ladies of the land than was exhibited 
by those two contending starlings. 
Here and ttere in secluded nooks in the cage are nailed 
oblong boxes, lengthwise of the box. Up at the top is a 
hole that is scant two inches in diameter. These holes 
must be of the exact size or the starlings will not enter 
the boxes. The first my neighbor bored were too large. 
The starlings would hang on the sides of the boxes, course 
J?9 hole; round and round, and wLen they found it 
