§64 _ _ 
THE INTRODUCTION OF EXOTIC 
SPECIES. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Readers of Fokbst ahd Stukam m^y rememlber an inquiry 
of mine some months ago as to the original prairie cbicKens 
of Martha's Vineyard and the numerous and most inlercsling 
communications which followed, not only in regard to the 
prairie chicken on Martha's Vineyard, but the general his- 
tory of this most interesting game bird. 
A gentleman who lives at Ed gartown, on the Vineyard, 
and whose du ies cause him to take frequent drives over a 
good portion of the en&tern pait of the island, has lately 
given me his very interesting observations on the prairie 
chicken or "heath hen," as the old islanders call it. He not 
iafr quently flushes individuals and sometimes coveys of 
these birds and distinctly recognizes the two vari' ties: the 
lighter and grayer colored one, the modern importation from 
the West; and the much more reddish or ruddy colored 
one, the aboriginal "henth hen" of the island. He says that he 
also sees the pheasants, which, he thinks, are increasing, and 
evidently bound to thrive in this locality. 
I wish some one could give u=! full and reliable informa 
tinn as to when the attempt was made to restock the island 
with prairie chickens, and by whom, and how many birds 
were liberated and from what source they were obtained. 
This brings up the whole question not only of restocking 
depleted covers but of transplanting animal ]i''e of any kind, 
and especially of the great wisdom needed in managing any 
such experiment if it is to be done without injury to resi 
dent forms, and the danger of damage of this kind greater 
than the benefit so'ight. The siriljing instances of such 
d image recur at once, such as tbe introduction of the Eng- 
lish rabbit into Australia, the mongoose into Jamaica, the 
English sparrow, the G iman carp and the gipsy moth into 
the United States, etc But, I think, there is reason to be- 
lieve that the introduC ion of any prolific form of life, ani- 
mal or vegetable, into a regi n new to it is a very grave re- 
sponsibility, and one that should not be taken without ex- 
pert advice. 
I cruld not help this reflection in connection with even so 
inten sting a letter as that of S. H, Greene, in Forest and 
Stream of May 22, describing the successful introduction of 
so many foreign song birds into Oregon. He tells of the 
successful work of a society for the introduction of foreign 
Fong birds into Oregon, wbich society in 1889 and 1892, im- 
ported 400 pairs of birds, comprising nineteen different 
sp ci^8. All these birds, and another importation received 
in 1893, were liberated in the vicinity of Po-.tland, the ex- 
pense to the society up to the last named date amounting to 
over $2,000. Special laws of the State protect these birds, 
and Mr. G-reene reports "the most encouraging results." 
Surely, if the sole result be to add to the singing birds of 
Oregon more songsters no one can fail to be pleased, but one 
cannot help a serious wonder whether among all these 
tinchcs, starlings, thrushes, larks, etc , there are not some 
species which may in a new habitat multiply inordinately 
and in some way have a tendency to drive out the native 
birds of Oregon. 
I do not know whether it was any special poverty of 
Oregon in the matter of native song birds that induced the 
formation of this society, but I do know that I should need 
to be very well assured that the importation would not be 
hostile to one single native songster in New England fields 
before I would consent to the liberation of those birds here 
Dearly as 1 love the nightingale 1 would rather still listen 
for him as I have doneln England, or Germany, or Italy, 
than displease our humbler songsters. Perhaps there is not 
the slightett danger such as I have suggested, and that "laws 
les^tricting immigration" are as needless in regard to song 
birds as they seem to be futile in regard to human beings. 
But if so will not some of our leaeling students of birds re- 
assure me. 
uce tbicg seems to be certain, that no end of irreparable 
blunders, often of the most serious kind, have been made 
threugh utter hetdlessness in this matter of introducing to a 
region forms of life not native to it. Who of all the people 
who were a few years ago so eager to get into their waters 
the now loathed and deietted German carp would not give 
a good deal if he could exterminate the species, at least in 
America? The English sparrow still has his friends and 
defenders I believe, and I will give him the full benefit of 
them and vf ice only my own great regret at his coming. 
But the mention of Martha's Vineyard and the prairie 
chickens reminded me of Nantucket, and that recalled the 
testimony of sever'tl of my friends who in recent visits to 
the island bave_ become aware of the nuisance wbich has 
cume about through the multiplication of the prairie dogs, 
which some careless experimenter thought it would be a 
great scheme to hberate there, 1 understand that the little 
creatures Lave spread over a good part of the island, and 
that already their presence is a thing from which the inhab- 
itants would be very glad to be relieved. 
Not long ago there appeared in Forest akd Stream a 
summary ef the twelfth annual report of the Wellington 
(New Zealand) Acclimatization Society, in which the steady 
decnaseof the native birds of New Zealand was deplored, 
and it was stated that "great trouble is had on the island by 
farmers, poultry breeders and the societj's aviary and fish 
ponds, from the depredations caused by the introduced fer- 
rets and weasels. These vermin— introduced to destroy the 
rabbits and now protected for the benefit of the sheep grow- 
ers—are rapidly increasing, and are likely to become a real 
pest." 
Of course they will prove a pest. The history of Aus- 
tralia in these matters is, one would think, sufficiently con- 
vincing and at the same time melancholy. 
It is pleasant to turn from this picture to that of the in- 
crease of native game in any part of our own country, It is 
certain that nearly all over the State of New Hampshire 
there are now signs of the return of the deer. In my native 
town of Boscowen, near Concord, deer have repeatedly been 
seen the past year, and I hear of them from many other 
parts of the State. Another item of intei-est is furnished me 
by Miss Crosby (Fly-Rod), viz : that the capercailzie which 
were liberated at New Sweden, Me,, some time ago, and of 
which so much was hoped, have certainly been seen and 
have made a ' report of progress." Miss Crosby is informed 
that several times broods of^young birds have been seen, and 
that tbe friends of the experiment are greatly rejoiced. 
I do not know about the "black game" liberated at the 
same time with the capercailzie. 
J confess to much interest in the introduction of capercail- 
FOHEST AND STREAM, 
'l\Q. into Maine, i;vhere 1 have felt much confidence that it 
would thrive when once started, and where! hoped it would 
not harm our own native ruffed grouse- 
Let me close with an appeal for information about the 
present condition of the game in the Corlnn Park in New 
Hampshire, and the plans of the present owners in regard to 
thepark. lam, of course, hoping that the park is to be main- 
tained as a game preserve, but I hear an ugly runsor that this 
will not be done, and that in fact the elk are being sold off, 
and that soon the park, as such, will be a thing of the past. 
C. Hi Ames, 
CURIOUS FREAK OF A MOOSE. 
Mr Ignatius Sargeant, of Waltham, Mass , has just 
returned from Louis Ketchum's camp at the head of Nah- 
makauta Lake, where, with his wife and son, he has been 
spending several week?. Mr. Sargeant is an ardent sports- 
man, birt unfortunately crippled by paralysis so that he can- 
not walk This y ar he deviled a novel way of getting 
around in the woods He had a guide, Manfred Priest, bring 
a horse from the settlements which was used to the wood.", 
and take it around Passrrnduncook and Nahmakauta lakes to 
Ketchum's camp; then be could go in a canoe with Ketchum 
across the lake to carrying places, while Priest brought tbe 
horse around; then he could ride ncross the carry to where 
'he could again take the canoe. 
The party had been across to Polly wog, Wadleigh and 
the Musquash ponds, where Mr, Sargeant had beeia very suc- 
cessful, killing two deer from the canoe, wh'.le his son also 
shot two The partv were returning. Mr. and Mrs. Sargeant 
and son being with Ketchum in the canoe, while Priest took 
the horse around to the carrying place. While crossing one 
of the ponds they heard some one in the woods shouting, 
and at first supposed it was some lumberman getting horses 
into the woods, but soon heard it was Priest shouting, 
"Bring a rifle! Bull moose ! ' 
As the pond was flowed, the driftwood made landing im- 
possible till they reached a regular landing, which took some 
time. Louis seized his Winchester and ran back and found 
Priest, but the moose had gone back. Louis took his track, 
but unfortunately started a cow moose and her calf, and 
they started the bull: and as Louis had his party to care for 
he could not follow. Mr Priest said that the first he knew 
the bull was following the horse. It several times came very- 
close, when Priest got off and threw clubs at it When hit 
on the head it would throw up its head and snort, arid as 
soon as Priest remounted, it would again follow the horse. 
It frnally turned back just before Ketchum appeared. 
Although a very singular thing, still this is not the only 
time a moose has been known to follow a horse. Only a 
few years ago olc was shot by a boy in the town of Lowell, 
Me., while 11 was chasing a horse around in a pasture. In 
one case— and 1 think in both — the animals chased were 
mares. * * 
Crossing of the European Red Deer and the 
American Elk. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The October number of the Century Magazine cont!iins a 
very interesting article on the Corbin game preserve, by Mr. 
G. P. Ferris, who makes one statement I would like to 
correct, namely, that so far as known, the American elk 
(Cerms canadensis) has never crossed with, its European 
congener, the red deer {Certua elaphus). 
Various attempts have been made in Germany, where 
hunting and the propagation of game have been reduced 
almost to a science, to cross these two varieties, and one of 
these attempts at least has proved sjccessful. The Duke of 
Pless, a great hunter and an enthusiastic sportsman, is one 
of the largest private forest owners in Germany. His do- 
main contains many thousand acres of wild forest land in 
the mountains of Silesia, and is inhabited by great numbers 
of red and roe deer. The Duke conceived the idea of cross- 
ing these red eleer with the American elk, and for this pur- 
pose imported a number of bull elk from this country. He 
introduced only bull elk into his preserve, as he was of the 
opinion that the bulls would be more likely to cross with 
the red deer if they had no cows of their own kind to asso- 
ciate with. I use the word preserve, although the domain 
of the Duke of Pless is not a game pre serve in the accepted 
sense of the word, as the game is not held captive by any 
sort of fence or in closure, nor is any special care taken of it, 
excepting that during protracted severe weather in winter, 
especially when a thick crust forms on the snow, food is 
placed where the deer congregate. 
The red stag is considerably smaller than the bull elk, both 
as regards heighth and bulk of body, and in the size of the 
antlers. The antlers of the stag, however, are much more 
shapely, owing to the fact that while the prongs on the ant- 
lers of the elk are always set one above the other, the top- 
most prongs of the old slag form a "crown," as the German 
hunter calls it. • 
This crown gives the "royal" stag, as he is there called, a 
certain distinctive appearance of a monarch of the forest, 
which even the largest bull elk lacks. The idea of the Duke 
of Pless was that by "crossing" he could increase the size of 
the stag's antlers, but siill retain their peculiar shape. In 
this he has been successful, as a number of stags have been 
shot in his forests whose antlers approached in size those of 
the elk, while the four upper prongs formed a distinctive 
crown. At the exhibition on antlers and roebuck horns 
which is now held annually in Berlin, the antlers of the 
"crossed" deer shown by the Duke of Pless were very much 
admired by all. and were without doubt the purest specimens 
in the exhibition, although they could win no pr'zas, as 
there was no special class for them. It is very encouraging 
to see that some of our wealthy men are establishing large 
game preserves, as these are the only means of saving the 
bio- game from entire extermination, although as yet the idea 
of°a game preserve is not popular in this free countiy of 
ours, despite the warning of the last buffalo, which is ever 
before our eyes. U. F . B. 
"Uncle Lisha's Outing," 
By Rowland E. Robinson, is now ready in an attractively- 
bound volume of 308 pages, the twenty-four chapters re- 
counting thehomely adventures of those Danvis Folks with 
whom Forest and Stream readers are so well acciuainted. 
Sent postpaid on receipt of price, $1.35, by the Forest and 
Stream Pub. Co, 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesdau, 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at lh 
ateat by Monday, and as rnuuh earlier as praoticabl-. 
§imje §mj md §ntL 
THE WOODCOCK'S WINTER HOME. 
It is interesting and instructing to naturalist and sports- 
man to observe the habits of the different species of migra- 
tory game bird? after the autumnal or winter flights have 
been made, and they have settled themselves down in 
their winter quarters. 
Most of these after their arrival in their southern winter 
habitat frequent localities similar to those in which tbey 
have been bred further North, feed by daylight, and are 
just as easily come at for their destruction here as there. 
With the woodcock this is quite different. He finds when 
he arrives here an enrivonment so entirely different from 
the localities in which he has been reared, and the nature 
of this conduces to so great an extent to his safety and 
protection while among us, that some account of all this 
may not be uninteresting to our more northern brother 
sportsmen. These facts being known, it only remains with 
our northern sportsmen by the rigid enforcement of proper 
laws in the northern breeding ground for protection, to 
create a hope among all, that the continuance of the 
species will be long in the land. 
The woodcock seems to prefer to all other localities for 
winter quarters, and to resort to in greater numbers than' 
anywhere else, the alluvial lands of the lower Miasisaipi 
River. 
From, and including portions of the State of Arkansas 
to the Gulf of Mexico, there lies on. either side of the 
great river an alluvial bottom varying in width from twenty 
to sixty miles. This is connected in places with pine for- 
ests on the hish lands running back in some localities 
hundreds of miles, and all forming the great forest belt of 
the southern United States. 
These alluvial lands are covered everywhere more or 
less densely with an enormous growth of most of the trees 
found in the South. With the exception of the compara- 
tively few plantations lying along the banks of the river 
and upon the bayous and lakes, where the land 
is high enough for cultivation, it is in reality an almost 
unbroken forest, for the extent of land cleared and under 
cultivation is small compared with that which is not. 
All over this alluvial bottom are to be found growing 
on the higher and more open ridges, dense canebrakes, 
and where these do not occur, upon the lower lands are 
lakes, marshes, bayous, sloughs and ponds innumerable. 
Here are still abundant, bears and deer, some panthers 
and wolves, cats, otter, quite a number of beaver, and rac- 
coons, and opossums without number. Of game birds, 
geese and turkeys and ducks are plentiful, and fish as the 
sands of the sea. 
This country is not all nor always a swamp, by any 
means. When the floods recede, should there have been 
an overflow in the fall and winter, the land in a great deal 
of it becomes firm under foot, and then deer hunting with 
hound and horse can be enjoyed to perfection. 
Into this locality, along all its extent, generally not 
until a black frost in December, one of the latest of our 
migrants; comes the woodcock. Almost without exception, 
he chooses for his quarters in daylight the densest cane- 
brakes, in a growth a man can scarcely crawl through; it 
is often 20ft. high. Here he defies all-comers. Not until 
dusk does he sally out; and then the belateel hunter, re- 
turning from an outing after deer or ducks, can see hitn 
against the after-glow of the departed sun, darting by like 
a bullet, anel on his way to some nearby cottonfield marsh 
or lake shore, to feast and grow fat on earthworms until 
returning daylight shall drive him back to his canebrake. 
I do not wish to be understood that this species in their 
winter quarters in the South confine themselves entirely 
to the lowlands, but t~hat the greater number do. They 
are also found, not so abundantly, scattered throughout 
the uplands wherever suitable feeding and nesting places 
are found. Here, too, they take up their quarters in the 
canebrakes and briar thitikets lying not far from the cot- 
tonfields, which seem to be their favorite feeding grounds. 
I knew of one gentleman in the State of Mississippi who 
kept a team of cockers for hunting them in the uplands, 
but he considered two and three brace a good bag for the 
day. On one occasion when I was out with a companion 
after partridges on the plantation of a neighbor, we fol- 
lowed some of the birds into a wood grown up with small 
cane and briars, and there came upon a larger number of 
woodcock than I have ever seen before or since. We suc- 
ceeded in bagging fifteen brace before it became too dark 
to shoot, for we did not find them until quite late in the 
evening. Had we happened upon them earlier in the 
day the occasion would have been a memorable one, for 
we left numbers behind. Upon returning to the same 
place nest day prepared to have it out with them, owing, 
I suppose, to a lowering of the temperature during the 
night, not a bird was to be found. All this occurred in 
Mississippi, near Natchez. 
They are the same capricious birds in their winter quar- 
ters as further North, and except dming the time of breed- 
ing and moulting, seem not to abide long anywhere. Of 
course, when there is a freeze they are compelled to leave, 
but they will often do so when there is no apparent cause 
for it, and often return in the same way. They are most 
probably influenced by some change of temperature, im- 
perceptible to the human senses. Tbe migratory habits of 
the bird ar-e involved in a good deal of obscurity, as he 
never, to my knowledge, like his near congenor, Wilson's 
snipe, travels by daylight. He goes and comes by night, 
and, as remarked, in a very capricious w^ay. 
The largest numbers 1 have ever seen obtained at the 
South were killed at night on their feeding grounds, in the 
cotton rows of the alluvial lands, the shooter using a torch, 
carried by an attendant, and firing a squib-load of powder 
and No. 9 shot from a light gun, or preferably, an old- 
fashioned, smooth-bored, duelhng pistol. The birds seem 
to be dazed by the light, and sit and stare at it until the 
shooter comes near enough to pot them on the ground. 
The negroes in old times used to kill them, and perhaps., 
do still, by going into the sugar cane and cotton fields at : 
night in pairs, one carrying a torch and the other armed ■ 
with a stiff cane stalk, stripped of all its leaves except a: 
thick bunch at the end. As our readers all know, the 
habit of the bird when rising from the ground is to rise 
straight up before he goes oft, and advantage was taken of 
this to whack him down with the cane as he rose frorn the 
ground. 
