448 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Deo. 5, 1896. 
one, though it could hardly be called mor? than semi- 
private. I think thfra were about a d( z m guests at table 
while we were there, and Ira Bina:batn good naturedly 
guyed them about eating the family ouc of house and 
home. What quantities of fresh counlry aausagfs, of 
ham and eggs, of buckwheat cakes and syrup, it took to 
appease all those huagry hunters I dare not scate, lest the 
story have no credence. The buckwheat cakes were 
especially irresistible, and of these RAl O -gan regularly 
ate bet«veen t^^oand three dozin at each meal, always 
having a ppfcial plat« of hia own ruaning between the 
kitchen and table. We kept a rough sort of tab on Organ 
during the visit, and found that his cake average p'^r mnal, 
morning and night, was twenty-eight cak"s. This for 
twelve meals maile the hands ime total of d'-i<i buckwheat 
cakes. It is no wonder Ira Bmgham at leugih told him 
that he had better go home, aftpr a while, so that the 
other hoarders could get a chance. In all we must have 
eaten several thousand buckwheat cakes at the old B.ng- 
ham homestead that trip, and Ira t'lought that next yettr 
he would havrt to put the whole farm down to buciwtif^at, 
especially if Organ insisted on coming up agtm. I aru 
advised that after his dnal departure for tne city R .11 
Organ found a neat package of cold cakes in his pocket, 
no doubt put there for his use as a lunch, to sort of beep 
him going till he got home. And it ih further said that 
when he got home and op-ned up his carryall bHg to take 
ouc his shooting cJothfls further packages of buckwheat 
cakes were found there, it being evident that he knew 
there was a hard winter coming on, H a was the worst I 
ever saw, and if he gets the Bingham iiomi^stead sore i n 
us we will all get turned away next year. So we ft el 
moved tu caution him about further excesses Anyhow, 
he can't say he didn't get three eqaare meals a d ly. 
The Breedlnif Grounds of the Canvasback. 
There has spparentiy been considtrdble divergence of 
opinion among scientidj men and hunters alike as to the 
breeding grounds of the canvasback duck. A great m my 
think that this bird is an Arctic breeder, an J believe that 
its chief nesting grounds are in Siberia. O.hers thmk 
th.it it breeds in Manitoba, and some claim to have 
found its nest in Minnesota, Dikota and Iowa. I ain 
satisfieri that all these opinions are wrong, and in this I am 
backed by the knowledge of no less an authority than 
Ira B.ngham, who has been rais- d on the shore of K ish- 
kouong, and has been familiar with the canvasback all 
his life, having killed thousmds of them in his time. Mr. 
Bingham claims that the canvasbacbs breed exclusively 
on Koshkonong waters, and tnat that is the reason these 
birds are found there in such number-J, w hile they are s ) 
scarce elsewhere. Ev^en to Mr. Bmgham the habits of 
these birds were long a myst ly, and he was puzzled to 
account fcr their numbeis; for he admits, even tu diy, 
that he has never seen the n^st of a canvasback, which it 
is often asserted no Americm shooter ever has really 
done. At length he hie by mere accident up jn the solu- 
tion of what has long been one of the mysteries of natu- 
ral history. It seems that the habiis of the canvasback 
have never been but h^if understood. It has always 
been a weird, uncanny bird. It i-v unnatural that any 
bird should be able to live standing on its head most 
of the time, the way a canvasback does, nor 
does it appear possible that a duok of ordinary attributes , 
would disappear from view beneath the waters under the 
earth for hours at a time. It has always been a q lestion 
in my own mind whether the bird was really fee^^ing all 
the time it was under water. Scienlitic men say it is feed- 
ing then, but they do not prove this at all, they only assert 
it, which is really an unsci^'ntific thing to do. No one 
has ever seen what a canvasback does when it is under 
water. Moreover, all canvasbacks have a strong facial 
resemblance to each other, so that one is easily mistaken 
for another. In a flock of canvasbaciis on the water we 
see birds going down and birds coming up, but how can 
we tell which bird is which? Indeed, we cannot do this 
at all, and we cannot scieniitically prove that the bird we 
see coming up cheerfully from tbe lower regions has not 
been down there for an hour, or a day, or for several 
days. We do not know what is going down under the 
water at all. We only assert that we do. It is surpris- 
ing, when we stop to think of this, how widespread hss 
been the erroneous opinion on these matters, how gulli- 
ble indeed the populace has been in accepting as stilled 
something which wds not really stttleo at all. It was ft r 
Ira Bingham lo bring lorih ti.e first reailj scitntific evi- 
dence upon ihis matter, and to prove beyond any reason- 
able doubt the inaccuracy of the old be help. 
Mr. Bingham vras sinking a ^vell lat^ibummtT— an arte- 
sian well — to sujply the milk hcuse which sits down near 
the lake front, at.d at the depth of about 300. t. below the 
surface he encountered water, and got a Hne, clear stream 
of about 3in. which from that time to this has never failed 
and which has kept the quality of the fresh mdk on the B.ng' 
ham homestead somelhing exceeding good. 1 mean only 
that the milk is good and cold, nothing more. Toe inside 
of the milk house has a vast lank or shallow vat, in which 
the deep cans of milk are set, and the water continufilly 
flows fiom the artesian well into the tank and around the 
milk cans, keepmg the temperature the same summer 
and winter, the water being conveyed into the milk house 
from the artesian well by a large iron pipe. 
Ira Bingham says that the well gave mm no trouMe for 
the first tew da> B, but at ler gth seemed to be suffering 
from some sort of clogging up, which determined him to 
sink it a trfle deeper— down to the hard pan which under- 
lies all that country, and which I believe is called tie 
SklavoniHU slatestone, or something of that sort. Within 
the next 50 t., at any rate, he learned what had been t> e 
trouble wiih his well, and at the same time solved tFe 
mystery about the nesting grounds of the canvashtck 
duck. To make the story short, he struck a fl jw of can- 
vasback eggs which lasted ftr three days and nights. 
These eggs passed out of the pipe and through the m.lk 
house, mcsc of them uninjured, thcugh Mr. Bingham 
broke a few of them to sausfy himself as to their rctl 
character. He assures me that the Semitic cast of cnun- 
tenance is cleaily apparent even before the young canvae- 
back has left the Suell, Mr. B.cghaoa, being a ^ame pro- 
tector, Old not use ai y ot th< se eggs lor I tying purpohe?, 
and indeed made no announcement of his ditrCv.very, f( r 
he said be was air^iid it would bring the place 
into too much notoriety, and he did not waiit 
persons to be trampling over the fl .wer bedp. 
Me is Convinced in his own mind, however, that the 
canvasback does not breed in Siberia or in Manitoba, but 
that it rears its yoimg tight at Lake Koshkonong, where 
it has so long been found in abundance. He knows now 
that it 18 a subterranean or subaqaeous breedpr, and 
thinks that there is no doubt a passage far under the 
B ngham farm which has communication with the 
waters of the lake at some unknown point, and that thus 
the eggs pass out into the open water and are hatched by 
the sun later in the season. This seems very likely, for it 
is well known that the great majority of the canvasbacks 
are* always seen far out in the open water of the lake. 
The h^pntheeis seems to cover all points of the known 
phenomena very perfectly, for thm the protracted diving 
habits ard fu ly explained, as well as the presence of tne 
bird in eu^h numbers at this point, They have been 
known here ever since the country first settled up, and the 
Indians say that they were always there so long as they 
can remember. In proof of this, one may see numbers of 
Indian mi unds all over the hills in that country, and 
grr^at quantities of arrow heads, stone hat^ihets, etc., are 
found tnere every year. Moreover, the well is still at the 
sa-ne place and id is still fl )wing. Not only myself but 
B veral of my friends saw ir, and cm attest tnat the 
8 ream is large en. uj;h to carry a canvajsback egg safely 
through tne pipes without crushing it. Oc course, at 
the tune of our vi«it no eggs were actually passing 
t irough; for, as I have stated, it was in the winter and 
the birds wer'* about leaving for the South. Asked if he 
thought the fl jw of eggs through the pipe would lessen 
the supply of canvaso ick upon the lake, Ira B ngham 
B lid he hoped not, and believed that such would not be 
the case, as every precaution was taken to let the egtjs 
d latrn through the milk house out into the lake without 
being broken or disturbed in any way. 
Tne lo V, brown lutle milk house on the Bingham 
homestead has something the Iook of a fish hatchery in 
ics outline, but it is not this. Few, to look at its unas- 
suming scructure, would guess that it covered one of the 
most singular of discoveries, and th4,t it was, in iffect, as 
one mignc almost say, a cdovasback hatchery insiead. I 
venture that the like of it is not known in fie whole of 
this great country. Mr. Ira B ngham is a plain, unas- 
suming mH.n, as may be seen, a man with the soul of hos- 
pitality. He has not given muca time to idle theor zing, 
but is a close observer of nature and above all a practical 
man. It seems to have been le/t to him to blunuer, as it 
were, but to blunder none the less in a most convinfiug 
manner, upon the real solution of the louK-mooted qiee- 
tion as to me breed ioK k rounds of the canvasbacK ouck. 
I will certify, and all my Iriends can Cirti y th.t tiuse 
K >3hkouong c iLViabacR ducks are no couuterfeitp, but 
up to the highest standard o( cmvasback excellence. Mr. 
Bingham knows tnat hw has something of n curiosity in 
his artesian well, and he is seekint; to t<eep b ith the well 
and the discovery covered up. Hi will, 1 am sure, how- 
ever, fl rgive me for making known these int resting 
facts, wnjch it seems to me brlong to the public as well 
as to Mr. Bmgham and his personal friends. 
The Call of the Pintail. 
Mr. B Smith, of Woo Sung, I.l , writes me as below in 
regard to the call of the pintail duck. Duck hunters of 
this region are familiar with the grating, chuckling note 
of the pintail, and are aware that it ca i be decoyed, or 
rather partially dt coyed — which is about as much as can 
ibe said for the pintail at any time — by imitating the note. 
1 have often heard this note of the pintail in the fall, but 
always when the birds were on me wing, and usually 
when thpy were p ssing straight on in a trav.-ling 
fl ght. Njt all the fl icks wculd thus answer the call or 
notice the decoys, but once in a while one would, though 
it seemed to be a way they had of 1 1 iting that they were 
aware of the real condition of affiirs, and declined to 
come down. I have -rarely known them to call when 
they intended to draw in close to the decoys. Mr. Smith 
sayp; 
"Mr. Mather asks about the call of the pintail. I have 
heard them call in the tpiiag when a lar^e flight would 
be coming in to open, suailow ponds. With a duck call, 
by placing your tongue against the ti p of the mouth and 
blowing a sharp breathj it will produce a clattering sound 
of about ten notes. I think it can be heard further than 
the call of the mallard; though not so loud and coarse, it 
is sharp and penetrating. Cannot say if they call in the 
fall, as we seldom see them here." 
Pink Tea at Mennphls. 
As is well known in bp. rtsiuen's t ircles. Mr Irby Ben- 
nett, of Men ptiis, late 8ouiheru salesman for the Win- 
chester Company, has been promoted and stationed at 
Hartford, Conn., and last weeK departed from his home 
in Memphis to his new home in Connecticut. Tnis was 
made the occasion of a farewell supper, or, more property 
speaking, a pink tea in Mr. Bennett's honor, the enter- 
tainment being held at the residence of Messrs. Paul and 
Harry Dammon, their friend Mr. Divine assisting. There 
were pre&ent further flir. Thos. Cdlender, of Nashville; 
Mr. Jas Grundy and Judge L. B, Suggs. An elegant 
and dainty menu was prepared an o the affair would have 
been most pleasant had it not been for the thought of the 
event it coiumemoraied. The festivities were prolonged 
until a late hour, and formal leave was then taken of Mr. 
Bennett by his friends. Mr. Divine, as tpokesman fbr 
the party, made (from a chau) a very iff cting speech, 
and told Mr. B nnett that Memphis was abi ut to lose a 
good citiZiD, and begrudged him to New Haven very 
much. Mr. Bennett maue pr( per reeponee, thanked hiai 
friends for their many acts oi kindness to him, and prom- 
ised to keep ihem supplied with nutmegs and maple 
sugar from bis new heme in tbe far, cold North. And 
now there hangs on the do r at 39 SiUth Cjurt street a 
card with the intciiption "Wanted, a partner." 
Man's Love for the Dog. 
Mr. Jcs. Irwin, of Little Rjck, Ark., writes me that he 
has lost by death his favorite pointer Nancy, over which 
we both snot during a visit to Little Rock, and a dog of 
high character as a field performer. He states that 
Nancy died of inflimmation of the lungs after only 
tsventy-itur hours' bjcknees, and in spite of all that he 
Could < o to save hi r. He speaks of the loss with that 
genuine regret w hich a tporisman feels at losing a good 
dog, and adds that he belit ves that few dogs ever livf d 
that had had more birds killed over them than Nancy, 
lu will be long before he finds another dog for which he 
will feel more affection. 
The Dog's Love for Man. 
From Shelby ville, Ind., there oomee the news ot thei' 
sad fatft of a shooter by the name of Jimes Hull, who, a 
week ago Thursday, accidentally shot himself while out 
quail hunting. The load of shot struck him in the chest, 
and he saw that he was fatally hurt, but manfully tried 
to do what he ould for himself. He threw cff his game 
coat, which contained several quail and rabbits, and tried 
to get out of the wooos to obtain help. He walked about 
a quarter of a mile and then fell, and was later found and 
taken to his home. 
When Bull left his coat in the woods where he was 
shot, his dog. a p dnter which he called Djc, and which 
was his only companion at the time, seemed to misunder- 
stand his master's wishes. Hi lay d iwn btside the coat, 
and here, two days afterward, he was found by searchers 
who had gone to the fcerie of the accident. The dog had 
been for nearly three days without any food, and the 
weather was very cold; but no pertuision could induce 
him to leave what he considered to be his post of duty. 
He charged savigely and repeatedly on the men who 
sought to take him away, and these, lor some reason not 
clear to one, finally thought it best to kill him. He was 
Bbot and given a good burial. Faithful to the last mo- 
ment of his life, he surely deserves good fortune in tbe 
happy hunting grounds, if any such thing may come to 
dogs. 
Ghosts. 
There is a haunted camp near Iron Miuntiin, Mich , up 
in the pine woo ls, where the dishes rattle on the table 
ani all sorts of noises prevail without appirent cause. 
Any party of deer hunt rs wishing to have the place rent 
free, and also to earn $^5, can d > so by sleeping there one 
nig it. S ) says the o^vuer, R W. O , who has movd out 
of the camp and is afraid to stay there. E, HouGH, 
1206 BoYCK BuiLorNfl. Ohieago. 
Water Killing Deer. 
Chicvoo, N )v. y7. — Editor t'ornHt and Stream: la one 
repp ci I) ^r^laye^ has tfius far the advantage of his 
critics. He has kept hia temper and indulged in no per- 
sonal abust , vphich, as he justlv remarks, is not arj ument. 
I have been in of the worst i Senders in this respect, and 
although m\ op 'i"n of the act he defends is in no re^pect 
changed, a c Im cnsidt ration of the case con vinci s me 
that ilie langu ge I U'Cii whs urj istiflable, and I desire 
through your coiumi s to beg his pardon in all humility 
for the terms in which 1 spoke of him. 
N )W (or the argument. He cannot deny the truth of 
what I said in reg-.r l to the extermination of deer, buffalo 
or Indinne. That disposes of his claim that game laws 
are needltss. Ntxt comes the qu ry, Why is it unsports- 
marilike to kill a de. r in the way lie d^scrlbe^? 
First, the running of deer with dogs drives them out of 
any given si ction sooner than any other method of hunt- 
ing. In all tbinly-si ttled p )rtions of the country w here 
theeet leis depend largely on gammas a means of sup- 
port, they oppose'the use of dogs for the above r*'ason. 
Twice in mv life I have shot dogs, once in Miine and 
once in West V.ifginia, when in full cry on the track of a 
deer, and both times by the earnest n q lest of the man 
with whom 1 lodged, who had pist d me at a runway 
while he r loged the hills above, 1 felt almost like a mur- 
derer when I did it, for I love a good dog, and it was the 
owner rather than the dog that should have been shot. 
Secondly, when deer has been cap'ured as Deerflayer 
describes the sport is at an end. Ot ci uree, any b y can 
kill him when thus tied: but such killing is butchery, not 
sport. N JW, I djn't find fault with a man for earning 
his living as a butcher — I have known many very worthy 
men of that trade — but nothing short of starvation would 
induce me to practice i;, and no money would tempt me 
to kill a deer after I had got him tied and hopeless of 
escape. 
I never shot at a deer at a longer range than 200yds. 
and never failed to kill when I shot, and I don't think 
any man ougit to shoot at game without reasonable cer- 
tainty of killing, If I ahou.d find myself in the situation 
described by Djerslayer my first impulse would be to ca- 
rcFS tbe poor, timid beast, and try to calm its fears. 
No animal is so easily tamed or becomes more fond of 
its master, as I have proved repeatedly. Catch a little 
fawn and hold it in your arms a few minutes, caressing 
it kindly, and when you put it down it will follow you 
like a dog. 
Hoping my logic is sound, though Daerslayer may not 
agre^. wiih it, I will say no more. 
H. W. S. Cleveland, 
A Massachusstts Grouse Saarer Convicted. 
Boston, M iss , Nov, aS.— fc'ditor Forest and Stream: 
The R}d and Gun Club, of Maisachusetta, reports the 
conviction of Harvey Hunter at Orange, Miss., for snar- 
ing. For several years the game has suffered so much 
from snaring that sportsmen frequenting that secrion 
have complained greatly, and the Rid and Gan Cub 
sent its special warden with instructions to stop the buai- 
neso, no matter how long it might take. 
For over four weeks daily patrol of the country was 
continued, taking in the towns of Orange, Wendell, War- 
wick and Northfield, over 2,000 snares being found and 
watched. When biros or rabbits were found in snares 
special watch on those also was continued till at lastsuffll- 
cient evidence was secured to warrant an arrt'st, which 
was made, and on Nov. 23 he was convicted at Orange on 
four counts: Of setting snares, of taking by pnares two 
ruffed grouse, of taking by snares three ruffed grouse, 
and taking by snares two rabbits. Oa his pledging in 
the futiirp not to snare again he was sentenced t > piy a 
fine of $20 and costs, the three other cases being placed on 
file. 
It is especially gratifying that the prosecution was suc- 
cessful, as it is supposed that over 1 000 partridges had 
been taken the present season alone. Daring the early 
portion of the season as high as fifty and seventy-five 
birds in a single day were reported to have been snared, 
the covers having been almost cleared of game. 
The Rod and Gun Club is well satibfied with its season's 
work thus far, and has received full and welcome support 
in its policy of looking out for Massachusetts sportsmen's 
interests, and letting the results speak for the club. 
As has been before stated in the FoBtsST AND Stream, 
the R td and Gun Club is composed of sportsmen who 
subscribe yearly for the purpose of hiving work done, and 
no money is spent save for that work. 
Oae thousand dollars has been raised this year, and 
they hope to double that sum in ib97, in which case ad- 
ditional game wardens will be employed. Business. 
