344 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Oct. 30, 1897. 
in the cold, damp moss that covered the ground beside the 
old log under the shadows of the firs and spruces. I realized 
that my heart was beating louder than usual. Silently and 
with great care, I crawled along until, nearing the end of 
the old log, when a halt was made, and after a sly peep over 
a depression in the top of the log, I was overjoyed to see 
that the grouse was back on the nest, and with her tail 
toward the end of the log, for which I was most carefully 
moving. How my heart did beat, and I wondered what 
was the matter with me. Years afterward, when buck 
ague spoiled my aim, I was admonished that an old com- 
plaint contracted when young had returned again. Slowly 
creeping over the soft, damp, moss, which gave no sound, I 
was able to peer cautiously around the end of the old log, 
and was pleased to see that the grouse had not changed its 
position. 
Mentally calculating the distance and not daring to move 
nearer, with my knees drawn up under me for a sudden 
spring forward, a chubby fist grabbed grouse by the tail. 
For the instant the worst seemed over. The consumma- 
tion of my cherished plan was already in sight, and a yell 
of victory was welling up in my throat, only to be choked 
back by the villainous behavior ©f this terrified bird. I had 
heard my aunt, who had blessed us with many cousins, once 
say that a hen could scratch for a whole flock of chickens as 
easily as she could for one. I had often seen the little shal- 
low holes left by the grouse that I had frightened away while 
dusting, and experienced a feeling akin to pity for the little 
partridges that depended on such a mother to scratch for 
them. But here in this bird was a marvel in the scratching 
line. Her wings were beating with wonderful rapidity, 
while her feet were raov'ng like lightning, The eggs all 
came my way first, nearly blinding me, as I was lying prone 
on my stomach. They impartially distributed themselves, all 
broken, over my hair, and covered my face and neck, also 
my little colored jacket, which my mother had made for me 
out of an old balmoral skiit. 
During this trying time I had kept a firm hold of the 
grouse's tail. Next came the fir and spruce needles, along 
with the dirt and litter under and around the nest, all ad- 
hering to my hair, face, neck and jacket, which were already 
sticky with broken eggs. Last of all, the tail, on which I 
all this time had maintained such a deathly grip, gave way. 
and the terrified bird struck out for cover with a speed I 
have never seen excelled during over thirty years' hunting 
her descendants. A few tail feathers were left in my 
hand, while my sleeve was full of broken eggs and dirt. I 
would instantly have exchanged places with the boy that 
drew the elephant in the lottery. The little brook that flowed 
down a gully near the old log was soon reached, handfuls of 
moss wrung out in toe water played an important part to- 
ward making up my toilet, and soon all except my feelings 
were quite presentable 
More than thirty years have come and gone, and when, 
during autumn, the woods are filled with the fragrant odors 
of the dying leaves, made beautiful in many colors like the 
dying dolphin by death, and a wily old grouse after a long 
hunt is cornered ; and when flushed over a point before my 
old dog, and in terror breaks cover and starts for some place 
of safety, my mind will revert back to one of her ancestors 
that I will always have cause to remember. 
Geo. W. Dearborn. 
COON INSTINCT. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Two years ago this fall I became the fortunate possessor 
of an invitation to spend a couple of weeks at Lonaconing, 
Md., as the guest of Mr. K L. Sommerville, superintendent 
of the George's Creek Coal and Iron Co. Most of the time 
during my stay there was put in camping on the trail of the 
elusive wild turkey, but incidentally 1 tumbled on to a 
number of parts in nature new at least to me. 
The most puzzling of these, so far as 1 was concerned, 
had to do with the behavior of a coon which the boys at the 
engine house of the mine had peimanently retained for a 
pet. Through constant teasing from his earliest infancy 
there had been brought to the surface of this coon's char- 
acter about all the satanic traits which a well-regulated 
coon could reasonably have been expected to develop. He 
would drink, fight, steal and upon occasion use bad language 
with great force. But his strong point was fighting. He 
would get up cut of a sound sleep on a rainy night and 
"spoil" for a fight, if an animal with any number of feet from 
two up might come within reach of the steel chain by which 
his ambition was confined, and this, too, at the tender age 
of six months. 
The engineer used to put on a pair of heavy buckskin 
gloves and "scrap" with him a few rounds every morning, 
just to keep him in training, you know. All this was not, 
I presume, so very remarkable for a coon, but what got me 
was his behavior when his sparring partner "fouled" him 
by getting hold of the fur on his throat. The instant this 
occurred he ceased operations with his front "hands" and 
clasped them tightly over his eyes, spreading the little "fin- 
gers" to completely cover and protect the lids and eyeballs. 
I puzzled long for an explanation of this apparently instinct- 
ive act. His foster parent, the engineer, who had adopted 
him when two weeks old, could not account for it; said he 
had always done so, right from the start. It has occurred 
to me that coons may have learned in the course of lights 
with those other night prowlers, the owls, that when you get 
a fellow's claws on your throat you are in a fair way to have 
your eyes picked out unless you cover them up real quick. 
This bit of practical experience, continued from generation 
to generation of coons and owls, might have developed the 
instinctive act of self-preservation so curiously brought out 
in the case of this little coon, reared under the refining influ- 
ences of civilization. 
I will confess it is with some trepidation that I hazard this 
guess, but I am in search of information, and this will do 
for an opener. 
Will some one please shed some light on the subject? 
K. L. Warner, 
Boston, Mass. 
New England Bluebirds. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
While driving near Dover, N. H., on Oct. 4. I saw a flock 
of about ten bluebirds. There may have been more in the 
fields on either side, but that was about the number in sight. 
As this bird has been very scarce in New England for the 
past two years, I thought this might be of interest. 
]Mark E. Noble. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday, 
Gorretpwidenee intended for publication should reach m* a* <A 
aitod *y Uoudas, and <u mMck earlier at pnieiicabl^ 
RAMRODS AND BIRD CAGES. 
St. Augustine, Fla, — Editor Forest and Stream: Mr. 
Louis Benson Akin preaches about "fun," in your issue of 
the 9th, and I like to see such sermons now and then. I am 
not ashamed to say that my feelings are always shocked 
when I read descriptions of Southern coon and 'possum 
hunts, because they are characterized by more brutality 
than any other kind of sport. The wary and frightened 
animal avoids a tree as long as possible, because he seems to 
know the danger of that last resort; but he is forced to it by 
the dogs, and then a member of the party climbs the tree 
and shakes him off, to fall among the dogs, and they all 
enjoy the "fun" as heartily as rowdies enjoy a dog-fight. 
In the olden time, when flint-lock guns were loaded with 
ramrods, to which was prefixed a screw for drawing loads 
in certain cases, I was one of those thoughtless and heartless 
things called boys, and another specimen about as wild as 
the youthful Podgers, used to tell me about his squirrel 
hunts, and how, when one of them ran into his hole in a 
tree, he would climb the tree and thrust his ramrod down 
the hole and twist the screw into the little animal and draw 
him out and throw him down among the dogs. I suppose 
that I was bad enough, but that case of beastly cruelly made 
such an impression on me, that even to this day it will not 
down. 
And here let me say that the sentence of Julius Delmotti, 
of Somerville, N. J., has not drawn a single sympathetic 
tear from my unfeeling eyes, because he is only one of a 
class who are utterly devoid of human feeling, and the bru- 
tality can only be driven out of them by legal process. His 
employer, by'the way, is not entitled to any more respect 
than he, because he advised him to violate the law and then 
sneaked out when the consequences came round. Most of 
the bird fanciers are Italians, and they will cage up anything 
in their windows that wears a feather. 1 have even seen 
swallows penned up theie to starve to death. 
Anywhere through the country Italian loafers may be seen 
in summer, while the bobolinks and other singing birds are 
nesting, lying about the meadows with their trap cages, and 
the bright domestic bliss of hundreds of little songsters is 
cut short, and changed to a brief career of torture. This 
might all be stopped, but our noble legislators are too deeply 
absorbed in political schemes to give a moment's thought to 
such trifling matters, and the end of all this wretched bru- 
tality seems a long way off. Didymus. 
A New Mountain Sheep. 
The proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 
contain this descriotion, by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, of Ovis 
nelsord, a new mountain sheep from the desert region of 
southern California : 
Mountain sheep were found by the Death Valley Expedi- 
tion in several of the desert ranges of southern California 
and southern Nevada, where ten specimens were secured by 
Mr. E. W. Nelson. "They were killed in the northern con- 
tinuation of the Funeral Mountains, locally known as the 
Grapevine Eange. Compared with the well known Bighorn 
of the Bocky Mountains and Cascade-Sierra system, they are 
much paler in color, somewhat smaller in size, and have very 
much smaller molar teeth. Compared with Ovis st-onei re- 
cently described by Dr. Allen, the contrast in color is even 
more marked ; but the pattern seems to be the same, and the 
darkening of the under parts and legs is also a character of 
stonei. In the absence of necessary material for comparison 
it seems best to treat the new form as a full species. 
The geographic range of the southern Bighorn is un- 
known, but it is probable that all of the sheep of the semi- 
barren desert ranges of Mexico and the southern United 
States, from Texas to California, belong to the present forrn. 
It is a noteworthy coincidence that Mr. Nelson, who in 
northern Alaska discovered and named the northernmost 
American sheep {Ovis dalli), should also secure, in the 
Sonoran deserts of California, the southernmost representa- 
tive of the group. In view of these facts, it seems peculiarly 
appropriate that the new sheep should perpetuate Mr. Nel- 
son's name, which I take pleasure in bestowing upon it. 
Ovis nelsoni, sp. nov. 
Type from Grapevine Mountains, on boundary between California 
and Nevada, just south of latitude 37". No. 4§4 tf. 9 ad. U. S. Nat. 
Mus., Biological Survey Coll. Collected June 4, 1891, by E. W. Nelson. 
Original No. 9«. 
General Characters.— Apparentiy similar to Ovis stonei Allen in 
pattern of coloration, but much paler; rump patch small and com- 
pletely divided on median line; tail short and slender; molar teeth 
very small 
CoZo)-.- Upper parts, except rump patch, pale dingy brown; under 
parts and legs much darker, contrasting sbarpl, with the white 
areas; inguinal region, hinder part of belly (narrowing to a point 
anteriorly some distance behind forelegs), inner aspect of thighs and 
posterior aspect of fore and bind legs, white. 
21easurements ctaken in flesh by collector).— Total length, 1,280; 
tail vertebrai, 100; hind foot, 360; height at shoulder, 830. In the dry 
skin the rump patch measures about 190 in breadth by 150 in length 
(from apparent base of tail). 
A Fooled Kingfisher. 
Windsor. O. — Editor Forest and Stream: After reading 
"Birds in a Predicament," I venture to relate an incident 
that happened to a bro'her angler. During the latter part 
of August just past Mr. John G. Bayless, while fishing for 
bass below me dam at Mechanicsville, O.. on Grand River, 
thinking his minnows needed airing removed the cage from 
the bucket and set them in the water near the dam. It 
happened to be nearly under "that old dry limb" which was 
soon occupied by Brer Kingfisher, who immediately sized 
them up, and no doubt thinking they were his proceeded to 
go up m the air to the proper height, when he closed his 
wings. The result was a scared lot of minnows and a very 
sorry bird. Mr. B. gently lifted him out and smoothed his 
ruffled feathers and set him going again. A. A. B. 
Babbits and Weasel. 
Hyde Park, Mass.— I have a little story for the Forest 
AND Stream family, if you think it worthy. 
While at my summer home in Marion, Alass., last July, I 
was returning to the house by way of a narrow path through 
the woods, when 1 saw a half-grown rabbit coming at full 
speed down the hill toward me. Knowing their habits, I 
felt that he would not turn out if he c.uld avoid it, and I 
stood astride of the path, putting my hands down as 1 would 
to catch a ball rolled toward me, and he ran right into them. 
1 took him to the house and put him in a box, and returning 
to the place of capture I saw another rabbit running down 
the same path, away from me this time, and after him what 
appeared to be a red squirrel. They disappeared ; but while 
I stood wondering at a squirrel chasing a rabbit, I saw them 
returning on the path. When they got within 10 or 13ft. of 
me, tie squirrel jumped on the rabbit's back and ciiught 
him by the throat. I stepped quickly forward and picked 
up one animal in each hand, when I found the squirrel to 
be a two-thirds grown weasel, I took them both home, not- 
withstanding the unpleasant odor from the weasel, and put- 
ting the rabbit with the first one took the weasel outside and 
killed him. I later released the two rabbits. M. E. N. 
itni^ l§Hq mid ^mu 
A MOOSE COUNTRY. 
CampbelijTON, N. B. — Editor Forest aiid Stream: As you 
invite report of one's sport, I venture to submit the following 
memorandum. It was just what your brilliant correspond- 
ent, Mr. E Hough, would call a piece of "Forest and 
Stream luck!" with a een?, indi, vici 'mack about it, thus: 
Sept. 1 — which is our opening day in New Brunswick here- 
away, left camp at 8:10 A. M. and at 9:15 A. M. (in one 
hour and five minutes) was smoking a pipe, seated on the 
back of my "first moose" and probably "first" knock-down 
of the season. The antlers had fifteen points, 4ft, 3in, 
across, main plate of antler 15in., height of antler 2ft. llin. 
What easy fun one thought moose hunting just then, but 
one had full and ample occasion subsequently to change th«t 
idea; for, oh, the cruel tramp in that eternal morass and 
never-ending quagmire, that shove along, push ahead, up- 
hill, down dale, and daily so, until, on the following 18th, 
monarch No. 2 bowed his ijrand head, as did his predecessor, 
to one ball from a ,ciO 40 U. S. A. Winchester. (I feel sure 
this will please Mr. Hooper, and hereby he will understand 
my vast gratitude to himself. The second head is somewhat 
larger and some say handsomer than the first. Since return 
here, both heads have been visited and inspected by crowds, 
and one has heard the epithets "dandies, noble, fine, terri- 
ble, exceptional, etc.," appl'ed to them. No egoism this; 
not my fault what they say and think; one only listens and 
feels lucky and jolly, and withal so fully repaid for past 
struggles and tumbles in muck, mire and slush. The heads 
are to be mounted; and acting on the emphatic verdict of 
Mr. W., of near New York, a hunter of moose for the past 
seven years, and who considers that they are the two "finest 
heads" hitherto brought low on the Eastern coast of North 
America, it is my purpose to ask permission to expose them 
in the hunters' exhibition at New York. 
I saw some forty animals — moose, caribou and deer — 
thirty-four of which were cows 6r does and so, of course, as 
"sacred" in the eyes of a sportsman as they are in those of a 
Brahmin! 
Now perhaps some of your readers might like to know 
where this moose country is to be found. Well, then, I 
should advise them to apply to Mr. Thomas Downs of this 
town, Campbelltou, a guide who knows the country 
thoroughly. Starting from here, you go some forty miles up 
the Restigouche River by scow or canoe, landing at the 
Restigouche Salmon Club's lodge at Red Bank; then a 
twelve-mile portage will bring you to the grounds, most 
easy to reach. Nearly all requisite provisions, butter, bread, 
flour, lard, eggs and vegetables are procurable at Mr. Wyer's 
farm, at the mouth of the Patapedia, which is three miles 
this side of Red Bank. The hunting ground is called the 
"Dead or Still Water." It is a sure find, a certain kill. 
Now surely one or another will call one magnificently 
generous, being thus explicit; or a third may scent some- 
thing disadvantageous being kept back, and so forth. Well, 
briefly, neither am I the former nor doing the latter, being 
bound next year for "pastures new" — forsooth for Alaska! 
Ah! for gold, another 'Throndiucker (vulgarly ycleped Klon- 
dyker — the Indian name being Thron-diuk, which means a 
river full of fish — this, by the way, and for those who wish 
to know what I didn't twenty-four hours ago). No — again 
one would be wrongly construed. Have not a Shakespeare 
by me — but did not Harry the Fifth, just before the battle 
of Agincourt, say to his coz, Westmoreland, something as 
follows: 
"By love, I am not covetous for gold; 
I care not who doth feed upon my cost; 
It yearns me not if men my garments wear; 
Such outwaxd things dwell not in my desires; 
But if it be a sin to covet honor, 
I am the most offending soul ahve." 
Well, then, for "gold" substitute "moose" if you will, and 
my confession will be understood. Eustice Hill. 
REMINISCENCES OF AN OLD SPORTS- 
MAN.— III. 
CContinued from page SS6.) 
We will now take one more squirrel hunt and then we 
will cha,nge the subject. The clerk in our village store 
was one of the most penurious and close-fisted fellows 
that I ever knew, and when he took his departure to start 
in business for himself in a neighboring village everyone 
appeared to be well pleased with the arrangement. The 
next fall the hunters in his village challenged those of a 
rival village near by for an old-fashioned squirrel hunt, 
the losers, of course, to pay the bills for a supper for both 
parties, and somehow they induced our penurious friend 
to take part in the hunt. As he well knew that I was 
lucky (as he chose to call it), he came up the night before 
the hunt to secure my services to show him and his com- 
panion where the squirrels were, adding that I need not 
take my gun, as they would attend to that part of 
the performance, and all that I would have to do would 
be to show them the squirrels and carry the game; and as 
the hunt was to be for two days, he would pay my ex- 
penses and give me 25 cents in cash. 
While the man was talking I had been first amused and 
then a bit r'iled, and was on the point of interrupting him 
and telling him that I could not go, but just then he had 
arrived at the poiht where my gun was gone back on, 
and my dander began to rise, and I listened until he 
wound up with the alluring cash offer, when I was just as 
mad as I could be, and was about to pull the throttle wide 
open and go for him, when I was suddenly seized and 
overpowered by an inspiration. As I have previously re- 
corded, when this happens it is of no use for me to try to 
escape the toils; struggle as I may, they only tighten and 
work their sweet wUl upon me regardless alike of my bet- 
ter feelings or resultant consequences to others, so when 
he sprung the 12.^ cents a day upon me, the "power" had 
me fast and tight, and the result was that I eagerly ac- 
cepted the munificent offer and bade him be on hand at 
daylight the next morning and I would show him such 
