166 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 28, 1897. 
GROUSE OF THE PRAIRIE. 
■Wtmoke, Neb., Aug:. 16. — Editor Forest mid Stream: I 
notice in your Answers to Correspondents in Forest and 
Stream of the 14th the question raised by tbe friend of H. 
P., of Grand Eapids, as to tlie color of tbe meat of the 
prairie chicken, and your answer to hi^ icquiry for li^ht. 
You are right as far as you go, hut you h- ve not covered the 
ground, and it mav be that the friend of H P. is not so far 
wrong after all. You say the contention of the friend of H, 
P. would apply to the ruffed grouse. 
Now, a ruffed grouse is what ia Illinois would he called a 
pheasant, and in New England a partridge, and its meat is 
light. But no one would mistake a pheasant or a partridge 
for a prairie chicken. But there is a grouse that is not a 
pheasant, or a partridge, or a prairie chicken, and its meat 
is light, and they are very frequently killed and eaten as 
prairie chicken, and in fact the average hunter would not 
notice the difference. A prairie chicken has very dark meat, 
and in the older ones it is much darker than the younger 
ones 
A prairie chicken has no feathers on its legs below the 
knees. But this grouse has light meat, and feathers to the 
LIFE OF NORWAY. 
Oina of the most interesting features of the Exposition now 
being held in Stockholm is the Biological Museum. This 
is a really charming panorama of all the birds and beasts of 
Scandinavia arranged with real trees, rocks, moss, etc., and 
with admirably painted scenery. It is the only one of the 
kind that has ever been made, and has been done under the 
supervision of Bruno Liljefos, the Swedish animal painter, 
and Grustaf Kolthoff, zoologist of ITpsala Uuiversity. Both 
men are enthusiastic sportsmen as well as naturalists and 
artists, and the animals here have little resemblance to the 
"stuffed specimens" seen in many museums. 
A winding staircase in the cent«r of the building leads to 
a circular platform with cushioned seats, and here through 
walls of glass we can see the wood creatures at home, nest- 
ing, singing, feeding and hunting. 
We begin with the luxuriant forests of the southern 
provinces of Sweden, and by moving from left to right we 
change our latitude and travel northward to the bird cliffs 
and gray stretches of the Arctic Sea. In the first section 
are the large stag, the fallow deer, the roebuck, the house 
stork, so much loved in Denmark a,nd southern Sweden, 
the strange hoopoe bird, nightingale, black- breasted thrusb, 
rock-dove, cuckoos and magpies. Many other species of 
small animals and birds are found here in the south as 
well as in the great central districts. A family of otters is 
A BIT OF- SEA BEACH. 
end of its toes, but in these two points we have the only dis- 
tinguishing features. . . , . , 
Their habits are exactly the same as the prairie chicken, 
and they are very plentiful in the western and northern parts 
of Nebraska, and were once very plentiful here. But now 
we seldom see them here, but still have the prairie chicken, 
while in the western and northern parts of this State we have 
the grouse, and seldom see a prairie chicken. 
Tbe ruffed grouse, viz., pheasant or partridge, inhabit the 
woods or brush, but these grouse live on the prairie. I think 
there are many more grouse in the State now than there are 
prairie chickens, and if the friend of H. P. had hunted in 
Nebraska I would know how he had very naturally been led 
to believe that the meat of the prairie chicken was light. 
He had been killing grouse; and I would also like to know 
if these grouse inhabit Michigan. 
Prairie chicken and grouse are very plentiful in Nebraska 
this year, but they will be nearly all killed off before the open 
season commences on Sept. 1. 
In another letter I will call attention to some of the pecu- 
liar features of our new game law. 
Prairie chickens have been killed here right along since the 
middle of July, when the largest of the new crop were 
scarcely half-grown. A. D. McOandless. 
[In our Answers to Correspondents' column it ia impracti- 
cable to cover very much ground, and we are obliged there 
to make our replies as terse as is consistent with intelligi- 
bility. 
The sharptail grouse is, of course, about as well known as 
the pinnated grouse, but it occupies a more northerly and 
more westerly range; and, although in many localities to a 
gr€at extent a prairie bird, we must take serious exception 
to many of the statements made by our correspondent. He 
says "a prairie chicken has no feathers on the legs below the 
knees." He probably means below the heels, for almost all 
birds are feathered from the knee to the heel, though in most 
of them the feet are naked . Exceptions are the grouse, some 
hawks, owls, etc. However, the pinnated grouse is feath- 
ered on the tarsus or shank, though not so heavily as the 
sharptail, which in its northern form is almost as heavily 
feathered as a ptarmigan. 
The flesh of the sharptail grouse when cooked is brown. 
It is not white Mke that of the ruffed grouse or the breast of 
the chicken: but what we said of the pinnated grouse is true 
also of the sharptail grouse— that the flesh of young birds is 
much paler than that of old ones. 
The ha.bit8 of pinnated and sharptail grouse we have not 
found by any means "exactly the same," The sharptail 
grouse is much more a bird of the cover than the pinnated, 
and when started on the prairie is very likely to plunge into 
the brush. It is often found among brush or timber on high 
mountains. It is also often seen in the early morning, 
especially on cold days, roosting high in the trees, something 
that we have not seen the pinnated grouse do. The sharp- 
tail grouse and the pinnated grouse have often been confused 
by people who knew both as "prairie chickens." As a mat- 
ter of fact they are very distinct in many ways. The sharp- 
tail grouse is sometimes found in Michigan and Wisconsin, 
though probably they are not plenty in those States. 
We regret to "learn that so little regard is pajd to the game 
law in Nebraska, and should be glad to hear further frOm 
our correspondent on this point,] 
The FoBEST AND STREAM is put to pvess each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach V/S at the 
]^teet ^ Monday^ and as much earlier as practicable. 
playing on the outskirts of a wood, a large horned-grebe is 
brooding on her floating nest, while a lesser grebe swims 
near by with her little flock of young. Under the trees a 
hooded crow is breaking an egg he has just stolen from a 
neighboring nest, a large woodpecker is drumming on a tree 
trunk, and in the thickets and on the branches above the 
smaller birds are busy with domestic aflairs. By climbing 
to a second platform above the first we are on a level with 
the high life of the woods. Little nuthatches are hunting 
for ins( cts on the bark ; here a bat peers out of his hole, 
there a couple of chickadees peer at one curiously as they 
hang head downward from a twig; a flock of waxwings are 
holding a dignified congress; on a lower branch a splendid 
capercailzie parades before his mate. Then as we move a 
trees grow scantier and more stunted. There is a vista of 
blue distance, a cold northern horizon of pointed firs seen 
across peaty moors and dark tarns. This is the land of the 
reindeer and its enemy, the wolverine or glutton. The 
white Arctic fox slinks from rock to rock in search of the 
yellow and brown lemmings that feed among the moss and 
lichens. . 
We travel north at a surprising speed. A few steps bnng 
us far within the Arctic Circle. The last stunted spruces 
die away and the barren ridges change to bold sea cliff?. 
Between them is a sheltered inlet with white breakers dash- 
ing outside, and here among the sea-marsh hillocks many 
birds are nesting— eider ducks, king ducks, velvet scoters, 
redbreasted geese, curlew, plover, and a number «f smaller 
species. The crags are like a great tenement house, with 
seagulls, skuas and cormorants occupying the lower ledges, 
rows of guillemots and auks above, and in the upper stories 
a great colony of puflans duck in and out of their holes or 
gather on the narrow ridges. The painting of this part of 
the panorama is especially fine. The rocks and birds near- 
est the spectator are real, and it is impossible to detect the 
point where th'?y give place to the artificial parts, where 
trailing nests float among the tops of the crags and snowy 
flishts of seafowl swing downward to the water. 
Then comes a wide stretch of open sea, with low, scud- 
ding clouds and tossing waves rolling shoreward. Eider 
ducks float on the water just beyond the surf line, and seals 
play around the rocks and lift their sleek black heads above 
the breakers. A score of little birds, sandpipers, rails and 
other species, follow the receding waves or search for food 
among the stranded seaweed. This ends the panorama and 
brings us around to the starting point. 
This exhibition, so attractive as well as Instructive, is 
what we should have in Central Park in connection with the 
Natural History Museum. Of course it would be more 
difficult to bring together a representative collection of our 
fauna because of the greater extent of our country, but the 
Northern and Eastern States could easily be included, or in- 
stead of traveling. from south to north the latitude of New 
York could be followed to the Pacific Coast with its peculiar 
fauna and flora. We have no dearth naturalists fitted to 
undertake the work, and Mr. Ernest E. Thompson, with hia 
great ability as artist and naturalist, could do the part per- 
formed so admirably by the Swedish artist, Herr LdjeJors. 
E. T. 
NOTES FROM MEXICO. 
Somehow or other my paper of March 6 was traspapelado, 
and I have just now got my hands on it. In regard to Mr. 
Thompson's query about the hunting of the coyote, I will 
state that it is commonly thought here in Mexico that they 
organize into packs. I was told by a friend not long ago 
that he saw from a slight elevation quite a number of them 
driving the plains for jack-rabbits, in a sort of half moon. 
He believed they were sending the hares past a stand, where 
others of their band were posted, but had no means of veri- 
fying this. „ . , „ ^. 
'The same article mentioned above asks for evidence ot the^ 
feriility of the hybrid cross of dog and wolf. I suppose it 
will be no news to state that the cross of the Mexican dog and 
coyote is undoubtedly fertile. On pretty neariy any country 
ranch animals of all grades may be seen. 
Reading an exceedingly well written and inteiesting 
article on deer shooting in Canada (Parry Sour d) I was forced 
to inquire again, How'"is it that other people's deer shot be- 
hind the shoulder "drop in their tracks"? Mine won't, even 
with a .45 70 or .45 90 rifle. My experience is that such a 
shot is always followed by a mad death race of anywhere 
from 25 to 200yds. 
I got a point the other day from a Texas friend in regard 
to a matter on which I have been puzzling. By sad experi- 
ence 1 had learned that quail, even the blue Mexican quail, 
failed to breed in a dry season. A year or two ago one of 
GROUP OF PTJFFINS ON THE BIRD CLIFF. 
little to the left the woods gradually assume a more northern 
character. 
This is the great central district which covers the greater 
part of Sweden, and here are almost all the game birds and 
animals; the giant moose or "elg," a family of brown bears, 
a pair of gray timber wolves, prowling among the trees ; a 
pair of lynxes crouching on a rocky ledge ; a litter of little 
foxes playing before their lair. A water orezel rests lightly 
on a stone above a mountain pool, a great gray owl and its 
fluffy owlets are tak^ing their siesta in a row ; a beaver is hard 
at work building a dam, and the southern birds have given 
place to those of the colder forests. The blackcock takes 
the place of the gorgeous pheasant; pine finches and redpolls 
those of the nightingale and hoopoe. Here is the large 
northern hare instead of the southern brown rabbit, T^e 
your Anzona correspondents recorded the same observation 
and included labbits, etc. Now, it might be explained that 
the food supply had something to do with the matter, and 
this would apply well enough to the cottontails and other 
mammals. But the quail feeds on seeds of grasses and the 
berries and seeds of various forms of cactus, all of which are 
about as abundant in a dry season as in any other. This 1 
have seen confirmed by the condition of the few quail to t(e 
found ; they are always fat. 
Now, my friend tells me that when he was serving his 
apprenticeship as a deer hunter not far from the line of the, 
arid belt of western Texas, his teacher, an old woodsman, 
said to him once: "If it doesn't rain pretty soon we'll not 
have many birds; the eggs won't hatch." He then called 
his attgation to ttie fact that brooding quail, even tuy- 
