Apbil 3, 1897.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
268 
fro up town alone always went round the back way! 
Now J have seen the black and tan come out the gate, 
plant himself "on his hurdles," as the Scotch say, in 
the middle of the road, with his nose pointed to the other 
house, and commence a series of shoit, sharp barks, 
somewhat varied in intonation, which he kept up until he 
got tired, and the other dog not showing himself, trotted 
back into his own gate with a supremely satisfied air. He 
was as evidently challenging the white and tan for a fight, 
and perhaps calling him a coward and blackguarding him 
generally, as anything could be; and it got so far, and pro- 
duced such "trouble in the families." that Mr. Stone wisely 
sent his dog out of town to a farm that he owned in Dablin, 
at the base of Monadnock Mountain. 
The facts of small dogs calling in big ones to avenge a 
whipping is too well known to need repetition here; but 
besides the cases of conversation between dogs and horses, 
of which I have noticed many instances, I feel quite sure that 
I have known a pricked trout, to warn his companions in the 
hole, and the crow "town meetings" I have seen are innu- 
merable. I watched one from behind a rail fence, about ten 
yea,rs ago, for nearly an hour, and there was evidently im- 
portant buriness going on, and if 1 had not got tired and dis- 
turbed them I might possibly have found out what it all 
meant. Von W. 
COYOTE CLASSIFICATION. 
It is not very long ago that Dr. Merriam startled us by 
increasing the number of species of bears known to inhabit 
North Arnerica from three to thirteen or thereabouts. We 
were just recovering from the shock inflicted by his paper 
OH that subject when a copy of another paper, entitled 
"Revision of the Coyotes or Prairie Wolves, with Descrip- 
tions of New Forms,'" comes to hand. 
In this last Dr. Merriam announces that be finds among 
the coyotes three well-marked groups, containing no less 
than eleven geographical forms, inhabiting western North 
America, from the plains of the Saskatchewan to the south- 
ern end of the table land of Mexico, and from the prairies of 
the Mississippi valley to the Pacific coast. To those who 
have always believed that a coyote was a coyote, and noth- 
ing more, this is certainly a startling announcement, and one 
which will lead to a closer scrutiny of all individuals be- 
longing to the small wolf tribe than has hitherto been given. 
It has long been a well-recognized fact among hunters and 
trappers and wolfers that there are greater or less diflierences 
in the coyote skins which come under their observation ; but 
these differences have been usually attributed to individual 
variation, although we have heard hunters talk about hy- 
brids between coyotes and foxes, and between coyotes and 
gray wolves. The red ears of some coyotes have often been 
referred to as indicating mixed ancestry, but it appears, ac- 
cording to Dr. Merriam, that there is a distinct type of 
coyotes which always has red ears. 
The author holds that while wolves hunt in packs and fol- 
low moving herds, and in winter often perform regular 
migrations and roam irregularly over large tracts of country 
in search of food, yet these movements have geographical 
limitations, as is proved by the constancy with which particu- 
lar geographical forms are found within particular areas. 
The snow-white Arctic wolf, for example, never reaches the 
northern border of the United Stales, no matter how severe 
the winter, and the red wolf of Texas is unknown on our 
northern plains. In the case of the coyote Dr. Merriam's 
studies go to show that except in winter, when migratory 
journeys take place, the distances traveled by individual 
wolves are not sufficient to prevent the various species and 
sub-species from conforming to the faunal zones. 
Dr. Merriam separates the coyotes into three groups, of 
which the first, known as the Latrans group, inhabits the 
upper Sohoran and Transition zones and the southern edge 
of the Boreal. The second, known as the Fmstror erroup, in- 
habits the lower Sonoran of Texas and probably Oklahoma 
and Indian Territories, the table land of Mexico at least at 
its southern part and the Peninsula of Lower California. 
The third, called Microdon group, inhabits the arid tropical 
belts of both coasts of Mexico and the lower Rio Grande 
region of Texas, as well as the lower Sonoran desert of 
Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Califcrnia. 
Oanis latrans is the largest of the coyotes and has the 
largest teeth. 0. fruslror and its allies are of medium or 
rather large size, and have somewhat smaller teeth; while G. 
inicrocbn and its relatives are smaller and have very much 
smaller teeth, 
The Birds of New Jersey.* 
Undek this title Mr. Charles A, Shriner has compiled and 
the New Jersey Fish and Game Commissioners have pub- 
lished a handsome octavo volume, with thirty- one full-page 
illustrations prepared expressly for this work, and made 
either from specimens mounted for that purpose or taken 
from the American Museum of Natural History in New York 
city. The introduction thus explains the purposes: 
"The object is the famiharizing of the every -day citizen, 
unused to scientific terms, with the habits and economic im- 
portance of the birds of the State of New Jersev. The 
study of ornithology, as suggested in books treating on the 
subject, is one attended with difliculties sufficient to dampen 
the ardor of even the more than willing student. The lono- 
and high-sounding names used in the scientific nomenclature 
—which even Latinizes common English words— the many 
divisions into families and species, and the disputes of 
authors as to what particular family a certain bird be- 
longs to, have undoubtedly in the past deterred many 
from following a study in itself so interesting and useful. In 
the present treatise the author has avoided all scientific terms 
aud designations, and has endeavored to foster a better ac- 
quaintance between the human family and its feathered 
triends without necessitating the medium of protracted study 
on the part of those who would like to know more about the 
birds around us. For the advanced student this book wiU 
be of no value, for in it will be found no learned disquisi- 
tions pertaining to the higher phases of ornithology; it simply 
purports to tell in plain language suflicient about the habits 
of birds to indicate their value to mankind and by plain de- 
scriptions to facilitate identification. The bobolink, with its 
variable plumage and merry song, is an object of' interest, 
but that interest will be minimized to a great many when 
they are told that the first thine: of importance to know 
about the bobolink is that he is a DoUchonyj) ori/svorus of the 
family of ieteridae: Scientific classification has its manifold 
uses, but there is something so deterrent about it to the aver- 
age reader that it has been wholly eschewed in the present 
publication. A knowledge of the value of birds can be ob- 
tained without it. 
"The number of birds in New Jersey, which either remain 
here all the year or whose visits are more or less prolonged 
during certain seasons, is very large, and a comprehensive 
treatise on all of them would make a ponderous volume. 
The endeavor of the author in the present work has been to 
deal with them in accordance with their importance; the 
transient visitor, who merely straggles into the State from ad- 
joining territory, or who remains only long enough to secure 
rest and food to supply strength for further travel, has not 
been considered worthy of the attention to be devoted to him 
who remains with us at all seasons, or whose sojourn is long 
enough to awaken in us either an interest in his habits or a 
desire for his return." 
Adirondack Wolves. 
Clayton, N. Y., March IS.— Editor Forest and Siremn: 
Inclosed you will find a clipping that I cut out of a Water- 
town paper, relating how Charley Adams, an Adirondack 
guide, had a desperate encounter with a dozen wolves, and 
barely escaped with his life; 
Adams fired and killed one of the -wolves. Tten he did a very in- 
discreei thing. He pushed forward to the pack, firing twice as he 
struggled through the snow on the frozen surface of the lake. A^s 
soon as he came in sight the wolves made a concerted rush at him. 
Adams for the first time realized his peri]. He fired twice in rapid 
succession on the oncoming animals. Then he clubbed his rifle. Ic 
was only by the most desperate fighting that he was able to keep 
them from doing him serious injury. Finding his rifle using up his 
energy in his attempts to employ it effectively, he threw it as^ide, and 
drawing his hunting knife fought with the fiiry of a man who knows 
his hfe is at stake. He stabbed and slashed tha snarling, barking, 
biting wolves repeatedly Fpw did he cut badly enough lo incapaci- 
tate for fighting. Finding his strength failing, Adams began to call 
loudly for help. Fortunately for him, some lumbermen wbo were 
taking a short cut through the woods to the camp heard his cries. 
They rushed to his assistance and drove off the em-aged wolves. 
Adams, bleeding from a score of long, ugly scatches and several 
usly bites, was carried to bis lodge. One of <he loggers, who knew a 
bit about medieme, dressed his woxmds and made him comforrable. 
Adams says that in all the years he has tramped about the Adiron- 
dacks he never had an adventure equal to his esrperience with the 
wolves. 
Now I'd like to ask, through your valuable paper, if any 
of your readers can give any information as to when the last 
wolf was killed in the Adirondacks. I have hunted in and 
near that vicinity for the past six years, and have talked with 
all well-known guides and hunters who make the northern 
part of Herkimer county their grounds, and, with one excep- 
tion, I fail to find any one who believed there are vs^olves in 
any part of the Adirondack woods. Two years ago I was 
talking with Erwin Ackerman, a well-known guide of that 
whole vicinity, and he said that he had seen two years before 
several animals which he took for wolves while crossing the 
plains near the line of Herkimer and St. Lawrence counties. 
H S. J, 
[The Charley Adams wolf story appeared originally in one 
of the New York city sensational papers, and no credence 
whatever is to be given to it.] 
Breeding Black Foxes. 
Macomb, 111., March 15. — Editor Forest and Stream: I 
send you a photo of a black los sent to me by J. E. Knight, 
of Boothbay Harbor, Me , who has charge of these foxes on 
the island. The company imported thirty from Alaska and 
only seven of them lived to reach Maine. These foxes were 
brought from an island in Alaska where a company is 
breeding them. There were only sixteen hundred black fox 
pelts sold in London last year, and fifteen hundred of them 
came from Alaska. These pelts are worth $100 apiece. 
The black fox and the silver gray have got badly mixed in 
that country and it will take some time to breed the gray 
out so that the breeders will have the pure black fox. 
Should this importation prove successful I have no doubt 
that more islands on the Atlantic coast will be stocked with 
these valuable animals. W. O. Blaisdell, 
* "The Birds of New Jersey." Compiled by Tbarles A Shriner 
State Genae and Fish Protevior, PatersoB, N. j. Pncefir 
Mr. Knight wrote to Mr. Blaisdell under date of Feb. 15: 
"I have been out on the island the past few days. Our 
number seems to he good ; I think we have the addition of 
only one litter of last season, with better prospects for this 
season. They have made themselves good homes, which of 
course they did not have when they were put on there one 
year ago last November. It was a strange country to them, 
and I fancy they did not do as well as they will in time to 
come. They are in good order and very lively. 1 have 
thought of rabbits many times, but it would be quite an un- 
dertakiog now to get the island stocked with them, as the 
foxes would kill the young so fast. This winter I have 
killed old horses for them. They are about to commence 
breeding, and when the young come along the first or middle 
of May we shall have lots of fish then for them. The island 
has more or less live food on its shores, such as mussels. We 
have something like 100 acres well wooded, and I see no rea- 
son why the foxes will not do well after they once get 
started." 
Migrations of Bears. 
Macomb, 111.. March 23.— Editor Forest and Stream: I 
have read M Hardy's article on the migrations of animals 
and birds with great interest. If any man in the country 
knows the habits of them it is M. Hardy; for he has spent 
a lifetime among them. He is correct about bears migra- 
ting. When I was a small boy I heard my father say he 
saw seven beai's cross the stream on Jogs at East Orland, Me., 
in one day. I asked him why he did not shoot them. He said 
it was on Sunday. He was one that believed no one would 
ever get to the happy hunting grounds even if they shot a 
bear on Sunday. Will M. Hardy give us his opinion what 
has become of the wild pigeons that used to be so numerous 
from Maine to Arkansas twenty or thirty years ago? I have 
written to Arkansas, Indian Territory, Red River and 
Arizona, but cannot get any trace of these fine game bkds. 
Some three years ago two were killed in this county, and I 
understand there was a flock seen in New York State last 
year. W . O. Blaisdell. 
What Becomes of the Moose Horns. 
Cdmbbrland County, Nova Scotia. — As all of our big- 
game sportsmen know, the moose loses his antlers annually ; 
the older moose lose theirs about Jan. 1, while the younger 
ones carry theirs tiU about the middle of March. When a 
new set begins to grow and while growing they are covered 
with a kind of hair, and the horns are then "in the velvet." 
This velvet they chafe off by hooking small trees in alder 
swamps, where they stay most of the summer, and by the 
middle of August the velvet is all gone from the horn ; then 
it stops growing. 
Last winter i found a set of antlers dropped a short time 
before, and this fall, being in the same locality, I had the 
curiosity to see what had become of the horns. After a 
pood deal of search, at last I found a piece of bone from next 
he pfeuU P.bput the si^e of a goose egg and about the same 
shape. On examining the surroundings I soon discovered 
that the squirrek and porcupines had regular roads to the 
horn,_from which they had had many a good meal. This is 
why it is that although thousands of sets of horns have been 
dropped in pa.st years there are so few fouod. 
1 am very sorry to see that the law prohibitory to shoot- 
ing cow moose in Nova Scotia has been repealed, as from 
my observations I am able to state with certainty that the 
moose have increased very much in the interim Some of 
our sportsmen said that there were not bulla enough for the 
eows^ This shows how very little they know of the habits 
of the moose, and should one doubt me Jet him follow a big 
buck as long as the writer did a short time ago. I struck 
this noble fellow's track in the morning and never let up till 
dark; all of the time he was traveling up wind and bad 
picked up four cows then and was still looking for more, 
with the four cows after him. 
The usual way of ascertaining the age of the moose is by 
the number of prongs or points to his antlers— that is, should 
he have five points on one side and four on the other he will 
probably be four years old. Moose Shank. 
The Mystery of the Candles. 
Frederictox,- N. B.— A.U odd experience befell Mr. 
Hunter during his return from a hunting trip to the settle- 
ment last fall. Onfi evening he left a candle burning on the 
table in the Forty-Niue-Mile Camp while he went out to the 
hovel to look after his horses. To his surprise when he re- 
turned to the camp the candle was not only extinguished, 
but could nowhere be found! Mr. Hunter is not entirely 
free from the influence of those wild, weird legends peculiar 
to the backwoods of the Miramichi, especially those that 
relate to a fabulous monster known as "the Dungarvon 
Hooper." He lit another candle, however, and again went 
out to attend to his team. When he came back to the camp 
he found that the second candle had vanished as mysterious- 
ly- as the first! This was a severe blow to Mr. Hunter's 
peace of mind, but ho pulled himself together and examined 
the camp thoroughly to see if some practical joker was not 
concealed about the premises. Finding no trace of anything 
in human form, he placed his third and last candle on the 
table, stood his axe within easy reach, and awaited develop- 
ments. In a few minutes a flying squirrel hopped in the 
door, boldly mounted the table aud knocked over the candle, 
thus extinguishing the flame. He started for the door with 
his booty, when Mr. Hunter took a hand in and put the little 
rascal to flight. Can any of the readers of Forest and 
Stream give evidence of any other animal known to them 
that has no fear of a lighted candle? Prowler. 
Snakes about New "Fork City. 
In the recently published "Abstract of the Proceed- 
ings of the Linnaean Socipfy of New York, for the Years 
1895 and 1896," Mr. R. L. Ditmars priats a list of the snakes 
found within fifty miles of New York city, and, together 
with brief descriptions of the species, gives notes on their 
local distribution and habits which might prove interesting 
to collectors. From this list we learn that sixteen species and 
sub-species of snakes are found within the boundaries men- 
tioned, but that many of them are becoming quite scarce. 
We are told that the brown snake is quite common in rocky 
portions of the Central Park, as is also the garter snake. 
Venomous snakes are the copperhead and the black rattle- 
snake. The first of thesfi is common ou the PaUsades, and 
has been recorded in Putnam, Westchester and Duchess 
counties, New York. The rattlesnake is found in Putnam, 
N. Y., near the Hudson River, and occurs also in Connecti- 
cut. It is said that a few are fouod annually in the central 
part of Long Island. All the localities nimed are within 
the fifty mile limit. Within the past two or three years we 
have several times seen garter snakes, and on one occasion a 
hog-nosed snake, on Manhattan Island south of Fort Wash- 
ington. ■ 
The Mong^oose in the Hawaiian Islands. 
The result of introducing the mongoose into the Sandwich 
Islands is told in a letter written by the Commissioner of 
Agriculture and Forestry to Consul-G-eneral Ellis Mills: 
"The mongoose was first introduced into this country 
about fifteen years ago. Previous to the introduction of the 
mongoose, the planters suffered severely from the depreda- 
tions of the rats in the cane fields. At times whole fields of 
cane were utterly destroyed, and at all times much damao-e 
was done. The mongoose soon changed this state of affairs. 
In one year after the introduction of ihe mongoose hardly a 
stick ot rat- eaten cane could be found. The plague of rats 
is now ended and we have tbe mongoose,, who, although he 
loves poultry, has never been so destructive to them as were 
the rata. 
"The mongoose are easily caught and one or two terrier 
dogs will keep a large premises clear of them. 
"In 1898 a law was passed by the Legislature forbidding 
the introduction, keeping or breeding of mongoose on the 
Hawaiian Islands. A sum of $1,000 was set apart to be ex- 
pended by the Minister of the Interior in the payment of a 
bounty of not to exceed aS cents per head for each mongoose 
destroyed on the island of Oahu. This bounty only applied 
to the island of Oahu, the mongoose being considered a 
necessary evil in the cane districts of the other islands. 
None of the bounty has been paid, as no one has ever 
applied for it." 
The Coming^ of the Birds. 
SATJ1.T Stb, Marie, Out., March 1^.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The first robin arrived here this morning with a 
gale from the southeast and rain. He looked pretty well 
used up, and I guess it was the unlawful doings in the 
United States ou the 17th that made him seek a more law- 
abiding community. Algoma. 
Augusta, Me., March 2o.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Here are a few signs of spring from this section of the coun- 
try: So far March 33 was the warmest day we have had 
this year, and on that day I saw a robin near the hou?e. He 
was singing loudly, as if happy to get back again. A friend 
of mine reported that on Marcti 22 he saw a robin and a blue- 
bird. Bluebirds were very scarce here last year. The first 
flock of geese on its northern flight that has been reported 
this spring was seen March 23. There were about sixty in 
the flock, flying very low, and they probably spent the night 
near by. Cushnoc. 
CHAitLBSTOWN, N. H., March 29.— Spring is coming! 
Saw the first pair of robins yesterday afternoon, though Mrs. 
W. thinks she heard some three days ago, before the last 
storm. Thawing by day, freezing Rt night, good "suo-ar 
weather" aaci maple sap running. 
