Jtjly 4, 1896.) 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
tbe ornithological department of the 0 . S. National Mu- 
seum, I was enabled to examine thirty-nine adult male 
scarlet tanagers, representing the museum's study series. 
Among all these there is not a specimen that has dis- 
tmctly black feathers upon its dorsum. With a similar 
purpose in view, Mr. William Palmer, of the same insti- 
tution, permitted me to examine fifteen adult males of 
this species in his own private collection. Of these again 
none exhibited the plumage in question, although one in- 
dividual (shot May 10, lb83) exhibited a marked general 
tingeingwith black over the scarlet, like one of the speci- 
mens in my son's collection, only more decided. Of the 
sixty-seven examples examined, then, only one presented 
the plumage pbase described above, where there is a 
black tingeing of the scarlet feathers, and none where 
there was black feathers in the interscapular region of 
the dorsum. 
Unfortunately we have oraithologistB among us who 
contend that these noteworthy variations are unworthy 
of note, whereas the careful recording of this very class 
of variations in the plumage of birds often leads, when 
sufficient material has been collected, to the most impor- 
tant generalizations. Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. 
May 31, 1896, 
A Mother Woodcock on the Nest. 
Mr, Andeew Nbalky, of Franklin, Mass., sends us a 
photograph made by him of a sitting woodcock in the 
early part of May. The local paper says of the picture: 
"Probably one of the most unique pictures ever taJken 
was that secured by photographer Andrew Nealey, of 
Franklin, last week, A couple of sportsmen, Charles 
Healey, of Lynn, and Frank Shiner, of Franklin, dis- 
covered a woodcock's nest, the bird setting on four eggs. 
The idea occurred to them that a photograph would be a 
NBSTINS WOODCOCK. 
Photo by Andrew Nealey. 
fine thing, and accordingly the artist took his camera to 
the pasture where the maternal bird was exercising her 
functions as a home-made incubator. Notwithstanding 
there was no posing, the artist got an excellent picture of 
bis subject, and he and his friends take no little pleasure 
in showing it, They are naturally proud of it, and well 
they may be, as it is doubtless the only one of the kind 
on record, and the bird- enjoys the distinction of being 
the pioneer in this respect " 
We gave in our issue of June 13 two photographs taken 
by Mr. G. Hills, of Hudson, N. Y., of a ruffed grouse nest, 
and two or three years ago we published a photograph 
sent by Mr. Hills of a nesting woodcock. Mr. Nealey's 
bird is hardly a pioneer, but this should not detract in 
the least from the artist's very great satisfaction in 
securing such a picture. 
The Bobolink in West Virginia. 
Central City, W. Va.— Anything but unpleasant mem- 
ories were awakened a few weeks since as that cheery 
little black and white songster, the bobolink, flew before 
me over the meadow in West Virginia, joyfully warbling, 
as if he had come to stay. I saw him twice, but think he 
has left us. Doubtless he was a stray waif, as I saw 
neither companion nor mate. I have been in Cabell 
county, W. Va., eighteen years, and have seen the bobo- 
link but twice. The first time, about ten years ago, I saw 
a pretty lairge flock of them on the ground and in the 
trees migrating northward. They did not sing, but 
merely twittered as they do in their migration south in 
the fall. I felt that I would like to have a West Virginian 
hear the notes of the one I heard sing here, as the people 
born on this soil seem to have no idea of this bird or the 
unique character of its song. I regard no bird as the 
superior of the bobolink to cheer the plowman in his 
weary toil. It seems a pity to me that as a "rice" bird he 
should be so ruthlessly slain. N. D. E. 
Food for Toung Quail. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In feeding his young quail (if he should be fortunate 
enough to get any), if Mr. Furguson will mix with the 
hard-boiled egg about an equal proportion of cracker 
crumbs he will find it a good food for the chicks. A 
mixture of boiled potato is also good. Insect food of 
some kind, however, is almost indispensable, and here is 
a suggestion that may be of service to him and to others. 
The common house fly will furnish the desired article 
about as readily and conveniently as anything within 
ordinary reach, and they are eaten with avidity by the 
young birds. My plan was to use one or two of the 
common cone-shaped fly traps made of wire netting, and 
when these were nearly filled and it was desired to get 
out the inmates, to submerge it for a few minutes in 
water, or hold it very briefiy over a gas jet. The chicks 
are very quick to appreciate this kind of addition to their 
bill of fare, and in a few days mine would crowd eagerly 
into my hand in their anxiety to get their individual 
share. A few angle worms now and then, chopped fine, 
will be relished. 
It would seem that the difficulty with which Mr. Furgu- 
pon is likely to have the most serious trouble is that of 
having his quail pest dry out, so that the eggs will not 
have i3uffic4ent moistuye t© insure the escape of the ohicks 
Skt the proper time, If this should oocur, when the shell 
breaks the integument lyiug n&st to it will simply olisg 
like a rubber garment to the young bird, and it will die 
before it is able to extricate itself. If the sod under the 
nest could be kept reasonably moist the four or five days 
before hatching that mishap would in all probability be 
avoided. With my first quail nest I was in the habit of 
turning the lawn hose over it every day or two, and 
though the hatching was delayed some three days in con- 
sequence (the nest being kept so cool) every egg brought 
out its chick. Jay Beebe. 
Birch Bark Stationery. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The Boston Herald in its issue of June 16 has the fol- 
lowing: "W. S. Howard, of Burlington, Vt., received 
from bis daughter Saturday a letter written on birch bark 
from Rainbow Lake in the Adirondacks. The bark is 
about the thickness of heavy brown wrapping paper, and 
it looks as if it had gone through a process of manufac- 
ture, but such is not the case. The bark was peeled off 
and dried, after which Miss Gertrude wrote almost 500 
words with a lead pencil and sent it to her father, folding 
the two pieces like a sheet of commercial note paper. 
The saying that 'novelty is the great parent of pleasure' 
seems truR in this case, as the parent has been afforded 
much pleasure by the novelty of an ingenious daughter." 
The Herald must have deemed this a noteworthy mat- 
ter, yet there is no especial "novelty" about it. 
In June, 1894, while on the fishing trip I wrote you of 
several weeks ago, our party, walking from Haines Land- 
ing to Rangeley, cut a lot of birch bark, and returning to 
camp we "manufactured" sheets for the letters and en- 
velopes for the carrying of the letters, and sent over a 
dozen such through the mails. I have now in my posses- 
sion the letter and envelope, the latter stamped and post- 
marked, which I sent my wife at that time. I have no 
doubt the same thing had been dome many times before 
we dreamed of doing it. Novice. 
Another Buck without Horns. 
Au Sable, Mich., June Q.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your last issue you have an article from. J. B. McW. 
about killing a buck without horns. He wants to know 
if any of the Forest and Stream hunters ever killed one. 
I shot a buck without horns, weight IGOlba. , in November 
of 1879, in Alcona county, Mich. I have killed over 200 
deer, and this was the only buck I ever saw without 
horns. F. H. K. 
IN JACKSON'S HOLE. 
In Pour Parts— Part Four. 
The morning of the 2.5th found us all ready to start at 
daylight. We had no drones in our party. Bob Cooke, 
Frank and Will started on a hunt together, and Ed, Sam 
and I went back to the cafion to get my horns and the 
meat and hides from all three elk. • My set of horns were 
in a terrible place, but old Ed said he would stick to me 
if it took all fall until we got them out. We carried 
plenty of rope and an axe. Oar plan was to pack the 
meat and horns down to the lake on our backs and then 
make a raft and ferry across the lake. In this way we 
saved chopping a path for our horses for about four or five 
miles around the edge of the lake. 
We rode until we reached the mouth of the cafion, tak- 
ing a couple of pack horses with us. Here we dismounted, 
and after tethering our horses securely made our way 
around the edge of the lake on foot and finally reached 
the carcass of my elk. My horns and meat that had been 
hung up were all right. The wild animals had been at 
work on the part of the carcass that was on the ground. 
I saw a marten sitting in the fork of a tree just over the 
elk and shot his head off. It was a beautiful little animal 
about the size of a rabbit, and its fur was as soft and 
glassy as satin. We had a rough time getting the large 
hams and side of ribs and head and horns down the 
mountain canon to the edge of the lake. We slipped and 
stumbled and swung ourselves down step by step, and if it 
had not been for old Ed's almost supernatm'al strength 
and endurance we would hardly have succeeded. Did 
you ever try to lug or carry a head of elk horns that were 
about .5ft. wide and weighed over lOOlbs. down a rocky 
mountain canon? If you have not you cannot appreciate 
what I am writing. Sam and I were both in favor of 
leaving all the meat and taking nothing out but the horns, 
but old Ed was so anxious to get a good supply of meat to 
carry home that we agreed to help get the meat out for 
his benefit. We finally succeeded after five or six hours of 
extraordinary labor in landing the head of horns, both 
hams and a side of ribs from my elk on the lake shore. 
We sat down upon a rock to eat our lunch and rest. 
Sam was looking up the beach and scanning the beautiful 
scene, when he suddenly exclaimed, "Look yonkerl" 
Both Ed and I looked in the direction pointed by Sam and 
saw a large cinnamon bear walking up the beach, smell- 
ing the sand as he progressed. He was coming toward us, 
but was out of range, being probably 500 or 600yds. from 
us. He was close enough, however, for us to see that he 
was a big one, and we began to hope that we were going 
to have a bear fight to mix with the excitement of elk 
hunting. We got behind a rock and waited to see what 
old bruin would do. The bear came on toward us for 
about lOOjds. and then sat up on his haunches as straight 
as a poodle dog. He seemed to be meditating what course 
to pursue. Ed said he smelled blood and was endeavoring 
to locate it. The smelling faculties of a bear are exceed- 
ingly acute. Ed tells us that they will take an air line to 
a carcass one mile distant as soon as it becomes tainted. 
Well, we waited for some minutes very impatiently and 
bruin did not move; so I proposed to Ed that he and I step 
around and try to get a shot at him. We started and 
made a wide circuit, so as to get on the other side of the 
bear and drive him to Sam. When we came out of the 
woods about lOOyds. from where the bear had been sitting 
he was gone. When we got back to Sam he told us that 
the bear sat still for several minutes after we started, then 
got down and slipped into the brush. He evidently got a 
whiff of us, and knew it was time he was going. We 
never saw him any more. 
We now applied ourselves to building a raft and in an 
hour launched a good raft 12 X 6ft. made of dry fir logs. 
Sam lef fc us, and going to the careasBes of his two elk 
managed to get some of the meat and tbe skin of tiie gow 
to his horse. So when we arrived on the other shore of 
the lake with our raft and cargo Sam was waiting for us 
with the horses. We took the trail to camp, arriving 
about dark. The other boys were all in. Will McKamy 
had killed a black-tail deer and brought it in whole. We 
now had more meat than we knew what to do with, ho 
old Ed began to dry and salt down in earnest. 
On the morning of the 26th we all started at daylight 
excepting Ed; he remained in camp to allow Will John- 
son to go hunting. On that day Ed rendered out his big 
pile of elk fat and made it into cakes, also made several 
more smoking racks and put on about l.OOOlbs, of elk 
meat to dry. He was making hay while the sun was 
shining, and we were only to J glad for him to have the 
meat. Sam and I went back to the carcasses of his two 
elk, but found that the meat had slipped out of the tree 
in some way and the bears and wolves had torn it to a 
thousand pieces. So all we saved out of Sam's two elk 
was one ham that he had secured the day before. I 
killed a black-tail doe during the day and we carried it 
in whole. Frank Gardenhire also brought in an antelope. 
The 27th we all remained in camp. Sam and Bob rode 
over to Snake River, about three miles from our camp, 
and fished until noon; they came home loaded down with 
as fine a string as I ever saw. Several of the trout 
weighed 5 and 6lba. each. Will Johnson went out on the 
plain and brought home an antelope. 
The morning of the 29th we were in the saddle at day- 
light. We packed all our goods in the wagon and then 
drove it to a dense thicket two miles away and hid it in 
the bushes. We bung up all of our hides and horns so 
the animals would not get them. We were going on a 
short bunt up the Gros Ventre River and then were going 
to start homeward. Crossing Snake River, we turned in 
a northeasterly course toward the mouth of the Gros 
Ventre. In crossing the open plains to the east of Jack- 
son's Lake we met another hunting party. They were 
two gentlemen from Chicago guided by a Mormon. They 
had not enjoyed themselves much, only having killed a 
few antelope and a deer or two. They had not killed a 
single elk and were in the heart of the elk country. I 
suppose the guide either did not know how to find elk for 
them or was too lazy to hunt. We passed on and did not 
see them again. 
We got into the Gros Ventre Valley in the afternoon, 
and after following this stream up for ten or twelve milta 
camped for the night. We were all delighted with the 
country and anticipated a great tim«. The country was 
wild and rugged and covered with dense fir trees, but not 
too rough to ride. Next morning we continued our 
course up the river and traveled until about noon, when 
we unexpectedly came upon a deserted Indian camp 
Old Ed was almost beside himsalf with rage. Wr counted 
the deserted brush huts or tepees and found there were 
forty of them; that meant at least 200 Indians. We also 
knew from the piles of bones and feet of elk and deer 
that the country had been hunted out. There was 
no use in going any further, as we would only be 
hunting in the rear of a tribe of Indians, so we wheeled 
our horses and retraced our steps. Next day about 
night we camped on tbe bank of Snake River near our old 
camping ground. We had not killed anything excepting 
two antelope as we croesed the plains. We were all sore 
over it, as the Gros Ventre River is noted foy its fine elk 
hunting, and Ed said it was by far the best he knew of in 
the whole West. The Indians also knew it was a good 
place, and had got there ahead of us. Old Ed abused the 
Indian agent for allowing them to leave their reservation, 
but there was no use of crying over spilled milk. I really 
think we were a trifle selfish, as we had already had mag- 
nificent sport and had no cause to grumble. 
On Oct. 3 we started for home. We toiled over the 
mountains for the next two days, and on the evening of 
Oct. 5 pulled up in front of Ed Trafton's house, The 
next morning we were early on the trail toRexburg, Ed 
was to accompany us to the railroad station and see us 
off. We had our last day's shooting this day, and we 
bagged many a prairie chicken as we drove that forty 
miles from Haden to Rexburg. We arrived at Rexburg 
that night, and next day sold all of the horses and surplus 
stock. Bob Cooke bought the four wagon horses and the 
wagons and tents, as he lived in Boise City, Idaho. I 
got $11 for Bruno, my riding horse, and he cost me $30. I 
had used him hard for over a month, so I think I did 
pretty well. Next day we reached Market Lake, the sta- 
tion on the railroad. This was the saddest day of all. 
Here we had to separate. We packed our elk horns and 
hides and saddles and such things as we wanted to take 
home, and shipped them. Bob Cooke, Sam Wester and 
Will Johnson continued their way across the plains to 
Boise City. Ed Trafton returned home with over $100 in 
his pocket and plenty of clothing and incidentals, so he 
was happy, and declared us all to be jolly good fellows. 
I venture to say there is not a man in that party who 
would not be glad to see old Ed again, and I know Ed 
would be glad to see any one of the party. So we sepa- 
rated, each one going his own way. 
There never were eight more congenial men on a hunt 
together than our party. We hunted and enjoyed our- 
selves, had magnificent sport and shared all the hardships 
as well as the pleasures. The truth is, we were all gen- 
uine sportsmen and there was not a sorehead among us. 
The cost of the trip was about $200 each. We killed over 
twenty elk, two moose, one bear, twenty-five or thirty 
deer and no telling how many antelope, besides hundreds 
of prairie chickens and a good many ducks and geese. 
Every word of this recital or diary kept by myself is true, 
as can be attested by any member of the party. It is not 
overdrawn; in fact, there were numerous small side hunts 
for chickens and small game, and many fine catches of 
trout, not recorded at all. A. B. Wingeteld. 
Indian Territory Parched Covers. 
Loco, I. T., June IT.— Editor Forest and Stream: We 
are having a continual drought. We have had only one 
rain sufficient to swell the ravines since Jan. 29; that fell 
on May 12, bringing a terrific hail with it. Hailstones 
fell here 7in. in circumference. This destroyed all the 
young birds and many old ones. I say young, for I 
reckon the first broods were hatched out, as I heard the 
males calling Bob White as early as March 22; this is a 
sure sign of mating. Notwithstanding these and other 
calamities the birds have made it through and there 
seem to be more old and young than ever before. Crops 
will be a failure, and many will take up the gun to shoot 
for market wbo Otb©rwig§ would b§ IB ffiQre legitimate 
