AUO. 15. 1896. J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
125 
mispion (this name attracts many wild creatures that 
otherwise would have stayed at home) caught two alive, 
besides eight or nine rattlesnakes. Unfortunately I was 
unable to get to see them, though I believe one is 
"pickled" in the Bxston Natural History rooms. 
This year I was more fortunate, as one of the park men 
informed me at once of the only one caught for 1896 as 
yet. This one, like the one I shot, was an innocent look- 
ing little fellow barely 3ft. long. He was also similarly 
marked, being spotted a good deal like a rattler and 
washed all over with rusty copper, the scales on the nose 
and forehead being most conspicuous, as they were most 
shiny. He was in a box with a glass cover, having for 
company one yellow and one black rattlesnake, also a 
large blacksnake. The rattlers and the capperhead stayed 
in one end of the box, seeming to be afraid of the black- 
snake, which twisted around as he pleased. This appears 
to be good evidence in support of the blacksnake's ability 
to kill a rattlesnake. 
The fishing Forked Daer has done, as he hints, would 
hardly have helped him to see a copperhead in my sec- 
tion of the country, as all I have heard of were in very 
high ground, which is in exact accordance with the 
views of Forest and Stream, which is as things should 
be. 
Further pirticulars can doubtless be obtained by inclos- 
ing a stamp to Mr. Dings, of the Blue Hill Reservation, 
Ponkapog, Mass. J. H. Bowles. 
the apparent prejudice against making up ragged molting 
skins, are certainly to be found in the larger museums, I 
have recently examined a half dozen such specimens taken 
at various dates In August, showing all gradations, from 
one in which the olive feathers are just bursting from the 
sheaths, and do not yet show on the surface of the plu- 
mage, to some that are entirely olive. , 
There is one interesting point in the coloration of the 
primaries and secondaries that has not been mentioned 
by your correspondents. In some of the red spring 
males these feathers are dull, brownish black edged with 
olive, as in the female, while in the others they are jet 
black. 
An examination of a large series taken at all seasons 
shows that the spring molt from olive to red does not ex- 
tend to the long wing feathers, so that the young bird in 
its first breeding season retains the olire-edged pri- 
maries and secondaries of his fall plumage. Then at the 
annual molt in August, when he resumes the olive dress, 
he acquires a new set of wing feathers, which are jet 
black. The black shoulder patch mentioned by Mr. Koch 
is retained throughout the winter, as shown by specimens 
from South America Wither Stone. 
0^tif0 §dg mid §mu 
SPORTSMEN PAST AND PRESENT. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have just read an article headed "How Sportsmen 
Originated" from the pen of the gentleman who haxbored 
a doubt as to clipping partridge heads with a rifle. I have 
long since forgiven him for questioning my character for 
truth and veracity, and will state beforehand that it is 
through ro ill will that I ask space in your valuable paper 
to make some comments on his recent article. 
I believe the gentleman has made the too common mis- 
take of confounding two distinct types of woodsmen, viz. j 
the sportsman and the hunter, and it may be he has 
woven in some of the characteristics of the scout. To be 
candid, I think he has. 
I take exception to applying so broad a meaning tb 
the term sportsman. The early settlers of whom he 
speaks did not kill game for sport. Mv grandfather wad 
one of the first white settlers to follow Gen. Wayne's trail 
into eastern Indiana. He was a successful hunter, aS 
were his sons, who grew up among the Indians and wild 
animals, but they were hunters and not sportsmen. 
They were fine rifle shots, and, like the native Indians, 
could course through the woods as if guided by instinct; 
but they shot deer for the carcass and not for sport. My 
father has told me how he would start deer in the morn- 
ing and run them on foot a circle of twelve to twenty 
miles, getting nearer as they became warm and tired, 
until when the opportunity offered he dropped one, which 
he would hang to a stout sapling; then, picking up his 
rifle, he started in pursuit of the remainder of the herd, 
loading as he ran. We cannot censure these pioneers, 
for meat was a necessity with them, and in this year of 
grace the land over which they chased the noble deer is 
largely through their industry converted into a fertile 
vale, too valuable {or aj2;riculture to shelter a hunter. 
And yet the sportsman can take a reasonable bag of quail 
in season. He can kill an occasional squirrel, and try bis 
skill with the rifle at a rabbit on the jump. If he will 
broaden the meaning of sportsman sufliciently, he can 
crack away at the rabbit with a scatter gun, making a 
mess of him if he hits. Yes, there certainly is a place 
where the hunter ends and the sportsman begins. 
I have thought of this while reading recently of the 
slaughter of the noble elk out West. And what sport can 
there be in taking fifty bass in a day, or killing fifty 
geese? This is not sport — it is slaughter. 
The pioneers were hunters from force of circumstances. 
Practice made them perfect in woodcraft. We, their de- 
scendants, inherited their virtues, and to them we are 
largely indebted for our love of the woods and the free- 
dom we there find. But hunting is no longer profitable 
except as viewed from the standpoint of a true sports- 
man. I think I am as good a rifle shot as my father was, 
and I can't comprehend how anyone can be possessed 
with a greater love of the chase than I am; but though 
the opportunity presented itself, I could not enjoy the 
slaughter of game to the extent it was practiced in years 
gone by and is now going on in remote parts of the 
TJQited States. 
The hunter kills game for the game, the sportsman kills 
for the sport; he accepts the game in proof of his ability, 
and puts it to good use because it is rare and worthy. 
Above all, he is not a hog, and knows when he should 
quit killing. I wish to cast no reflections on the pioneers, 
but owing to the scarcity of game the hunter of to-day 
should be suppressed. Lsfc us be sportsmen, 
G. W. Cunningham. 
GAME IN NORTHERN AROOSTOOK. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
There have been many reports the past two years of the 
increase of moose in northern Maine, but as I have not 
been able to go to the woods te see for myself 1 have been 
skeptical. Now I no longer doubt, since I learn on reli- 
able testimony of settlers and lumber cruisers of the 
numbers seen, greater than usual, and of course of the 
greater killmg by sportsmen from outside and by the 
settlers themselves, who in the far back haunts of this 
game on the headwaters of the St. John and its tribu- 
taries work their own sweet will with never a fear of 
wardens. But there is this difference in the two classes 
named: whereas the city sportsman (?) is mainly ani- 
mated by the desire to boast of his prowess on returning, 
the settler kills to supply his own and his friends' families' 
needs for food, and rarely leaves any to waste. I know 
of one tributary, formerly a favorite haunt, that for many 
years did not contain a moose until this season, where 
over a dozen were seen by one party cruising, and where 
several have been killed already. As the game is so per- 
sistently hunted in season and out, it is clear that the in- 
crease cannot be accounted for except by migration from 
the great moose country of the Northwest. Maj. Butler's 
book tells us of that great moose country in "The Great 
Lone Land." 
When game warden Collins came into this section a 
year or so a^ o it was thought by some that he had taken 
his life in his hand and meant to stop poaching. But 
Charley Morris's bullet at the mouth of the Allegash 
seems to have changed his inclination, for he has turned 
boniface at the old Eagle Hotel, Fort Kent. By the 
way, Morris is not the villain and desperado he has been 
painted, as hundreds of sportsmen and others who know 
him well will testify. I have known him since he was a 
babe in arms at the old log camp, foot of northeast carry 
on the west branch of the Penobscot. Old Joe Morns, 
who then run the camp, was his father, and here he was 
born and grew up the good guide and hunter that he is. 
Collins was not enforcmg the game law at the time he 
was shot, "but that is another story." 
Deer too are plenty as fleas on a fox, and are increas- 
ing rapidly. All the killmg, in season and out, cannot 
equal the natural increase. When the deer go it will bo 
when the wolves again return in force. 
As to caribou, but little is seen of them during hot 
weather in any year. I have an opinion that flies do not 
plague them so as to cause them to take to water. No 
doubt they will be plenty as usual when their favorite 
season, winter, sends them frolicking over the barrens. ' 
Pine Tree. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each weeH on 
Tuesday. Correspondence intended }or publicatioVi 
should rea<2h us at the by MQWfto]/, mcl QS mUOPt 
Pottsville, Pa., &Mg. '6.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
The copperhead is quite common in our mouatdins here- 
abouts, but this year seem to be imusually plentiful. All 
of us who do any fishing or hunting are perfectly 
familiar with them. Quail and grouse are fairly plenti- 
ful. F. 0. P. 
Potsdam, N. Y,— Editor Forest and Stream: Up here 
in St. Lawrence county, N. Y., much further north than 
Connecticut, there are many copperheads. I know this 
because I have killed them. Last week while visiting in 
the country my cousin killed one, helped by the dog, 
who will not touch them till he can grab the tail. 
Nl-HA-NA-WA-TB. 
HAS THE SPARROW REFORMED? 
Willi amsport. Pa. — Editor Forest and Stream: In- 
closed quill contains an insect and some lar^ <g of the 
same. Tbe history of the insect is as follows: 
Several days ago we noticed a number of bluish-gray 
pitches on the grass of our lawn. These patches had 
about the appearance of the track of a person who had 
been walking through ashes. The blades and stems of 
the grass, which formed the patches or spots, were 
thickly crowded with the insects, and the latter had the 
appearance of small hoppers when they partly flew and 
partly leaped after being disturbed. 
We had already determined to apply a solution of Paris 
green to the grass when an unexpected, much abused ally 
made his appearance. A swarm of European sparrows 
devoured the obnoxious pests, and in the course of a few 
days reduced them to small numbers. The sparrows fatill 
hunt the scattered few of the insects and will without 
any doubt keep them successfully in check. 
Another, to us, new habit of the sparrow has been noted 
through the present summer— that it lives with the best 
understanding among a number of robins, which latter 
birds are in the habit of extracting from the ground 
numbers of earthworms to feed their young. The spar- 
rows, with heads inclined to one side, also drew many 
fat worms in exactly the same manner from the soil, be- 
tween the grass, and never was there noticed any dispute 
between our friend with the red breast and the foreigners 
of bad reputation, the English sparrow. 
j AtratiST KoQH. 
[Tn the quill S'^nt with this letter were five species of 
insects, namely: Jassm inimicus (Say.), Orgilus mellipes 
(Say.), Hydrellia formosa (Low.), Psilopa atrimana 
(Low,), Odontocera dorsalis (L6.v.). Of these, the first is 
a leaf hopper and ia decidedly injurious to vegetation ; 
the'^pecond is a parasite of the family Broeonid^, and is 
undoubtedly beneflcial; the last three are muscid flies, 
whiqh are not especially injurious or beneficial. We con- 
clude that the sparrows were eating the leaf hoppers, and 
if 80 they were doing good service.] 
The Florida Manatee. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I perceive that Forest and Stream is still firing an oc- 
casional shot at the Florida game butchers, but I'm afraid 
its ammunition is wasted, for most of them belong to that 
stupid class who neither read nor think. 
Even men who consider themselves respectable go deer 
hunting in midsummer, and would shoot a fawn three 
days old without compunction, and then go boasting 
about that they had killed a deer. 
Not the slightest respect is paid to the game laws about 
St. Augustine. They commence on quail in September, 
and every Sunday for miles aroupd a stranger might 
suppose a belated Fourth of July was going on. 
Forest and Stream appears to be troubled about the 
fate of tue manatee, and so am I; but Florida has legisla- 
tors of wonderful foresight, who can always be relied on 
to see the danger of exterminating game and plumage 
birds after they have disappeared, and it's hardly worth 
while to trouble ourselves about the rapidly disappearing 
manatee, for our wise solons will attend to that, as they 
attend to everything else in that line. Dioymus. 
Color Phases of the Scarlet Tanaerer. 
Phii,4X»elphia, Pd, , Aug. 4 — Editor Forest and Stream: 
J ha vtj 0 exi muoti interested in the articles lately published 
in your paper on the plumage of the scarlet tanager, more 
fjspecially as I have recently made a careful study of the 
plumage changes in this species in preparing my paper on 
t'jyiolting of Birds" (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1896). 
It is remarkable that Dr. Coues should still quiry the 
statement that the malo scarlet tanager changes to the 
olive-green dress in the fall, and that Mr. Ridgway even 
in the new edition of the Manual makes no allusion what- 
ever to the olive winter plumage of the male bird. 
Sptcimens showing the change from the red to the olive 
plutaage, though B9t yer^ plenty jft coUeotiggp, o^lri^ 
A NEW MEXICO SHAVE. 
We started from Virginia on Thanksgiving Day to look 
after some mining property in the Toas range of moun- 
tains, near Tres Piedras, New Mexico. 
Our first stop made was at Pueblo, Col., where a most 
welcome leg-stretching was employed in purchasing our 
outfit of mining tools, provisions and other necessaries of 
camp life, and again we took om" way toward the land of 
the ancients, which, as seen from the Denver & Rio 
Grande route, presents little else to view but a barren 
waste of mountain and plain, relieved occasionally by 
deep arroyos or dry river beds that mark the past of 
mighty cloudburst torrents. 
Arriving at Tres Piedras, we spent the night, finding 
none of the "blissful haven of rest" described to us, but 
instead a good deal of a rapid little mining town of the 
usual hotel, saloon, dance hall and barroom outfit. 
In the morning we hired a team and moved over to 
Toas, the last resting place of that famous hunter, scout 
and Indian fighter. Kit Carson. Here we pitched our 
camp, hired our men, and with drill and pick commenced 
what proved to be a long and fruitless struggle with 
rugged nature for her precious metals. 
A month of steady work brought a craving for variety, 
so a bear hunt was decided upon, and the carcass of a cow 
was dragged out on the range where Bruin & Co. were 
known to frequent. Night came and with it we took our 
stands, placed with a view to intercept the bear should 
one be attracted by our bait. I, on account of my youth 
and general inexperience, was given a tree about 50yds, 
from the carcass and presumably out of the line of 
action. 
Left to myself, I was soon perched on a limb with my 
back to the trunk and high enough up to see over the 
underbrush, though I confess this wasn't the sole object 
of my elevation. A light mantle of snow covered the 
ground, adding to the clearness of this already beautifully 
clear, though cold night. 
At first my position was comfortable enough, but after 
a while inaction, with its slower circulation, allowed the 
cold to penetrate, and time moved with leaden wings. 
Then I got to speculating if it wasn't all a put up job on 
the tenderfoot, and the boys were laughing over it in the 
cabin's warmth. 
But these annoying doubts were cut short by the sounds 
of a peculiar shuffling tread coming through the under- 
brush. Then, to my horror, an immense, so it seemed to 
me, black bear came in view, stopped, took a smell as an 
observation, and started toward my tree. My hair began 
to get up on end, every nerve wasajump, and instinctively 
my limbs prepared to carry my body to the top of the tree at 
a gait no b )ar could catch; but again bruin stopped and 
sniffed the air uneasily, and from noting of his actions 
sprung the thought that perhaps I waao't the object of his 
intentions after all, and that if I kept qiiet he mightn't 
find anything suppicious and go his route. Then like a 
flish I remembered I was out for bear; also, if it ever 
became known that I had such a chance and let it slip my 
standing in camp would be gone forever. 
These thoughts pulled me together with a jerk, and 
shoving my Winchester in position I took the best aim I 
could and pressed the trigger. 
Perhaps it was the kick of the. 45 90, or the excitement, 
or numbaess, or all three toe;efcher, CHat made me lose my 
balance. I can't say. Suffice it to tell that almost with 
the report I was flit of my back on the ground, not over 
25yds. from the first bear I had ever seen free of cage or 
Collar. 
Oa my feet, I realized that that bear was a fighting 
bear, and also to oubru i him was impossible, one leg being 
hurDia my fall; so whipping out the pair of heavy Colt's 
revolvers that I had been twitted for bringing along, I 
opened up a fusillade such as, one of the boys afterward 
remarked, reminded him of the Mixwell Jjnes war back 
ia Texas. 
The last chamber empty, I dashed, one after the other, 
the heavy weapons at the savage face now almost at me, 
and, trying to spring to one side, tripped and fell behiad 
a boulder with a despairing cry, sure my time had come. 
But no! Even as I fell riflas began to crack, and "mme 
enemy," in a last attempt Co reach me, dropped almost by 
my side. The boys were soon anxiously crowding round, 
and stood. This recalled my dazjd senses and I promptly 
responded. Revived, the "cheek" begot of an hundre 1 
year American independence asserted itaelf, and with all 
the dignity torn clothes and scared face could com- 
mand [ demanded; "Who was ass enough to shoot my 
dead bear's skin full of holes?" But the boys understood, 
and with many a shout and laugh cut up a regular war 
dance, so glad were they that I was not really hurt. 
Scock wds taken of our victim, a very fine specimen of 
the black be^ir. We found nine bullet holes, and s x of 
these were c dited to me. "Pooty good fur night work 
with a pistol," our captain pronounced it. 
My weapons being found, bruin's head was lashed to a 
pole, and with the boys dra-zgiag bim I. iBafghed lirap- 
iog bp^ triuippliaat lotQ cwp. M4tK.. 
