164 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 26, 1898. 
The New York Audubon Society. 
The annual meeting of the New York State Audubon 
Society was held on the afternoon of Wednesday, Feb. 
g, at the Aitierican Museum of Natural History. A re- 
port was read by Dr. J. A. Allen, of the executive com- 
mittee, detailing the work done by the committee during 
the year. Attention was called to the difficulty of carry- 
ing on the society's work througli a lack of money. Dr. 
Allen read the report of the secretary and treasurer, 
Miss Emma H. Lockwood, which showed a deficit of 
$64, and comparison was made with the amlual report 
of the Massachusetts Societj^. which shows a member- 
ship of 2,000, with an annual income of over $2,000. as 
compared with a membership in the New York Society 
of less than 400 and a proportionate income. The offi- 
cers of the preceding j^ear were re-elected. They are as 
follows: President, Morris K. Jesup; Honorary Vice- 
Presidents, Mrs. Robert Abbe, Miss Maria R. Audubon, 
Mrs. Samuel P. x\very, Miss Eleanor Blodgett. Mrs. 
William C. Doane, Mrs. David S. Egleston, Mrs. Morris 
K. Jesup, Mrs. Cadwalader Jones, Mrs. William M.. 
Kingsland, Mrs. Francis P. Kinnicutt, Mrs. Seth J^ow, 
Mrs. Charles Russell LowHl, Mrs. Henry Fairfield Os- 
T-"^rn, Mrs. Jcijies Roosevelt, Mrs. Joseph H. Rylance, 
Mrs. Frank K. Sturgis, John Burroughs, John P. 
Haines, George Bird Grinnell, Ph. D., Henry G. Mar- 
quand, Right-Rev. Henry C. Potter, D. D., Hon. Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, Abbott H. Thaj'-er; Secretary and 
Treasurer, Miss Emma H. Lockwood; Executive Com- 
mittee, Frank M. Chapman, chairman; Mrs. J. A. Al- 
len, Mrs. Melbert B. Gary, Mrs. F. N. Doubleday, Miss 
Emma H. Lockwood, Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller. Mrs. 
May Rilev Smith, Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, J. A." 
Allen, Ph.D., William Dutcher, Henry Van Dyke, Wil- 
liam T. Hornaday, Frederick Peterson, M.D,^ Henry S. 
Williams, M.D. 
Addresses were made by Dr. R. Heber Newton and 
Mr. Frank Chapman. 
The society has recently issued a number of useful 
documents. Among these are a poster to be set up in 
public places giving extracts from the bird protective 
acts of the State, and a letter from Charles R. Skinner, 
State Superintendent of Schools, calling attention of 
principals and teachers in the schools of the State to the 
excellent work done by the Audubon Society, and re- 
questing these teachers to use every effort in protecting 
the birds. The general circular of the Audubon Society, 
with a list of oflicers, appears; also two very attractive 
short stories, one for boys and one for girls, written by 
Mrs. J. A. Allen, wife of the eminent ornithologist so 
well known in bird protective work. A reprint of the 
United States Department of Agriculture circular rec- 
onamending the establishment of Bird Day in the 
schools; a short illustrated explanation of the way egrets 
are obtained, by Mr. Frank M. Chapman; an essay on 
the economic value of birds, and an artist's appeal by Mr. 
Abbott PL Thayer, complete the list of the papers in 
question. 
Appealing, as these do, to a very wide public, it cannot 
be doubted that this literature will do a great deal of 
good. 
Mtfsic and the Dog-. 
I HAVE a small dog that is remarkably intelligent, a 
good performer of many tricks and extremely vivacious. 
He is verv good at dancing, from which one might sup- 
pose the violin to be his favorite instrument. But quite 
the contrarv. The tone of this instrument seems to 
cause him extreme anguish. The violinist of the family 
has an instrument of the purest tone, and he draws a 
smooth bow. One class of tunes seems no more offen- 
sive than another, but it seems that those played in the 
key of C aft'ect him most. When the music begins he 
will sometimes leave the room Avith head down, back 
arched and tail droopiup-, at the same time piteously 
whining. But generally he utters long and loud wails, 
painfullj' human in tone and inflection, seeming to come 
from a heart almost upon the point of breaking; and 
when the violin is laid down he evinces a relief and 
satisfaction that are not to be mistaken. And what is 
most singular is the fact that no other instrumental 
music seems to affect him; he pays not the slightest at- 
tention to it. 
In our house a mandolin club meets semi-weekly, and 
all the noise of mandolin, guitar, violoncello, harp, etc., 
does not disturb him in the least. I have asked myself 
the question : Does the tone of the violin affect his 
head, his nerves, or awaken unpleasant emotions? If 
the first two, why should not the louder noise of other 
music affect him in the same way? If the emotions are 
awakened what must be their character? Are they 
melancholic, or the emotions of pity for one who seems 
to be in distress? If of pity why are not his demonstra- 
tions to the performer well marked? These questions 
may remain unanswered, but that this dog suffers when 
the violin is played is obvious beyond all doubt. 
N. D. Elting. 
Taxidermy and Sc«Iptt«?e, 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Being a subscriber to Forest and vStream, Mr. Geo. 
H. Storck's astonishing article tmder the above caption 
duly came before me. The style in which Mr. Storck 
waves aside and banishes to the depths of oblivion the 
w'ork of all his predecessors in the field of taxidermy 
is more than superb; it is magnificent. And when I 
read that "taxidermy has now reached the highest point 
it ever can attain," I wept for joy that I had lived to see 
this day. 
For several years I have lived along in a slipshod 
way, honestly believing that Richardson and Rowley 
and Will Palmer and Prof. Dyche and Aksley and F. S. 
Webster had done a lot of modeling in making their 
clay-covered statues, and had done a great dejl of it 
Wtb rfire and commendable artisti? skill I have h^^^i 
several of those men excliaini: "How much easier it is 
to model a statue than it is to mount the skin of an ani- 
mal!" And it has for years been my belief that the 
production of statues covered with modeling clay, duly 
modeled into form, and with the skin of the animal duly 
modeled down upon it, all began in 1882; but Mr. 
Storck says that "later a few men began to model a 
little." 
I have known one or two men to "fall down" in 
their work and blame the clay for it all. I once knew 
a painter who used to curse the canvas because his 
colors did not look right. There may be other taxider- 
mists than Mr. Storck who do not know how to use 
clay successftilly, but if there are, I am sure a few les- 
sons would set them right. I have seen some hundreds 
of manmials mounted over clay, and never yet have 
I seen one that had torn to pieces, or even cracked, that 
had lost shape or had been "burned" by the clay. 
Mr. Storck's pictures of a living horse and a plaster 
model of it are all right; but neither of them is taxi- 
dermy! What we old fogies now want to see is a pic- 
ture of a horse's skin mounted over such a plaster 
model as that represented. And what we want to know 
is, how much it costs to mount a horse — or a deer — in 
that sculpturesque way. We should Hke to have Mr. 
Storck give us an ocular demonstration, and have him 
prove to us with a photograph of some of his work 
that in his hands, and by his new and only good method, 
taxidermy really has "reached the highest point it ever 
can attain." William T. Hornaday. 
Woodcock Strutting. 
Several articles in late issues of Forest and Stream 
on this habit of the woodcock bring to mind an incident 
which my brother and I witnessed some five years ago. 
We were taking a fishing trip to Koskee Lake for bass. 
About two miles from our destination we had to de- 
scend a deep ravine to cross Beaver Creek, a small 
stream spanned by a bridge. A sturdy growth of alders 
bordered the rivulet on each side, with numerous gaps 
through which we could see the water. The road fol- 
loAved close on its banks. As we drove slowly along, en- 
joying the glorious June morning, Ave noticed a "large 
saw-log stranded in the shallow water directly in oiie of 
these open spaces, and on each end of the log was a 
bird. We had no trouble in recognizing them as a pair 
of woodcock. 
The one on the upper end of the log particularly at- 
tracted our attention by his peculiar antics. He would 
drop his wings until they touched the bark and then 
strut down the log 4 or 5ft., exactly as the gobbler does 
in the barnyard. He would then turn and strut back 
again, remain in one place and teeter back and forward 
a number of times, then stretch his neck to its fullest 
extent and point his bill directly upward, and then his 
neck would shrink up until nothing but his long bill 
and big eyes were visible. 
During all this time the bird at the opposite end of the 
log, which we took to be his mate, remained perfectly 
impassive and apparently took no notice of the hand- 
some gallant opposite her. 
We watched this unique performance lor half an hour, 
not being over 25ft. distant from the pair. When we 
resumed our journey the dandy seemed to be as eager 
as ever to attract the dainty lady's attention. Our only 
regret was that we had left our camera at home. 
KOSHEE. 
Gravenhurst, Ont. 
"That reminds me." 
It had Ijeen a very unsatisfactory day in camp. In the 
first place it had rained hard, effectually preventing the 
Redoubtable Hunter from bringing in anything but a 
wet jacket. Then, in the afternoon, it had turned cold, 
and not a bass would rise to the flies of the Inveterate 
Fisherman, The tents were full of mosquitoes, the fire 
refused to burn, and even the Colossal Liar's pipe went 
out when he removed it from his mouth to expectorate. 
"It does beat the world what luck some people have," 
said he, as he struggled with a damp match to relight the 
brierwood. "Here we have been for four days, and not 
a blamed bass worth taking out of the water, while not 
even old Redoubtable there has done anything for the 
delectation of our palates. Wish I had gone trout fish- 
ing instead of trampoozling away up here." 
"Wish you had too," said the Inveterate Fisherman. 
"It Avould have saved us many a painful stretch of the 
imagination in following some of your truthful stories." 
"Well," exclaimed the Major, "trout fishing is not so 
bad; you are bound to have a disagreeable time of it, 
anyway, either with the weather or the black flies or the 
general cussedness of the lay of the land; and if you do 
get a nice basketful of fish, why, bless your heart, no 
king ever sat down to a finer spread than they afford." 
"Speaking of trout," said the Colossal Liar, "reminds 
me that the first trout I ever caught I captured oix dry 
land." 
A groan from the Inveterate Fisherman followed this 
remark. He muttered: "Now we are in for another, and 
no place to run to." 
"Yes," calmly went on the Liar, "I was hunting once" — 
a snort of disgust from the Redoubtable — "along the 
bank of a small stream in Onondaga county, New York. 
There were thousands of muskrats living under the fcianks, 
and the bottom of the stream was covered with ears of 
corn which they had dragged into the water from a 
nearby cornfield. Suddenly I saw a big fellow poke his 
nose out of a hole directly opposite me, and instantly I 
drew up my rifle and fired at him. With the report a 
beautiful trout darted out from under the bank at my 
feet, and went flashing away up the stream. I knew 
that the water ran very shallow only a few yards above, 
so I hurried along after the fish, and when he took refuge 
under a §tone I scared him out again with a bit of pebble. 
He kept right up into still shallower water, and finally 
reached a place where he could not swim. He con- 
tinued flapping along, however, until he actually 
threw himself out on dry land, ailid: I ran to him, tossed 
him on to the grass, rapidly scooped a tiny pool in the 
gravel and put him in it. Then I went to the house, 
about half a mile away, got a large pail and brought the 
trout home, where I put him in the deep well." 
A great cheer arose from the party at the conclusion of 
this tale, in which all joined but tlie Redoubtable Hunter. 
He sat silently chewing the cud of reflection until the 
noise had subsided; then he, too, broke forth: 
"That's a pretty story; do you suppose anybody is 
going to believe that yarn?" 
"Yes, sir, I do," i-eplied the Colossal Liar; "and if 
anybody here doubts it, all I have got to say is, let 
him come with me up into Onondaga county, and I will 
show him the very creek and the very well." 
"That's very well- — " began the Story Teller, but at 
this point the Hunter broke in again. 
"Now," he went on, "if you want to hear a true story 
of how I shot my first rabbit with my boot, I will tell 
it." 
The Fisherman started out of the tent rather hurriedly 
at this, but it had begun to rain again, and he had to 
return and take his medicine with the rest of us. 
"You see, it was this way. When I was a boy I 
worked on my uncle's farm in Oswego, N. Y. We had 
beei*! mowing hay in the orchard, and it lay in great 
swaths, read}^ to be cocked. up. We were engaged in 
this work, each with a fork, when all of a sudden a 
rabbit ran out from under the hay near my feet, and 
it tore away through some long grass that had not yet 
been mowed, I instantly dropped my fork and ran 
yelling like a young Comanche Indian after him. The 
grass was so heavy and long that bunny could not make 
very fast progress, and I rapidly gained on him, as I 
could see by the undulating movement of the grass. All 
at once he stopped short, and I was so near and going 
so fast that before 1 could check my speed I had 
trampled on him with my heel and broke his neck. And 
that is how I came to shoot my first rabbit with nly 
boot." _ _ • 
"That reminds me," said the Major, "of a little ex- 
perience I once had in the Michigan woods with a 
deer—" 
"Hurrah! there she blows!" cried the Inveterate, as 
a mighty bass broke the water right in front of the tent. 
The last of the cold shower was over, the sun was peep- 
ing out from a mass of scattering clouds, and only the 
Colossal Iviar remained, sympathetically, to hear the 
Major's yarn. D, F. H. 
New York. 
Lon Shirtliff, in the early 60s or the later 50s, was a 
resident of Quasqueton, a little town on the Wapsipini- 
con River, in the State of Iowa. He resided, we said, 
but, more accurately speaking, he "stayed" with his sis- 
ter, the sweetest and prettiest woman in the village, 
who was a teacher in the town high school. Lon in 
legs_ was the antithesis of knock-kneed, his shoulders 
sloping as we see in statues of Venus; long neck and 
arms, and straight as the Decalogue. He had two fail- 
ings. He was lazy. The ague tackled him, but had to 
give it up, for he Was too lazy to shake, and he was inor- 
dinately and uncompromisingly truthful^ — ^too lazy to tell 
a lie. The only thing he could or would do and do well 
was to fish. The fish would come to his hook as natural 
and easj'' as love to a gum-chewing miss or cats to an 
old maid. Pickerel were his favorite, and the civilization 
of the "Wapsie" not yet being up to spoon and the fly, 
his recourse for bait was the tail of the bullhead, which 
he had the knack of putting in most tempting form for 
this royal fish. His habit, after dissection, was to toss 
the bullhead back into the water, possibly to give it time 
to reflect and prepare itself for that bourne from which 
no bullhead was ever known to return. Certainly bull- 
heads are deserving of a "happy hunting water," more 
so than some of those who hook them. And so. one 
day, Shirtliff, trolling for pickerel, caught the same bull- 
head with its own tail. This is no idle tale. He said so, 
and to those who knew him that was enough. If he had 
been a common piscatorial liar he would have caught it 
several times. E. P. M. 
Green Mountain Notes. 
Milton, Vt., Feb. 17. — There has been comparatively 
little hunting in Vermont thus far this season, on ac- 
count of the extremely unfavorable weather, and the 
good days that come few and far between are of little 
use, for the deep snow in the woods makes hunting a 
hardship. Rabbits are very plentiful, and a bag of 
half a dozen, even without the help of a dog, is a com- 
mon occurrence. The favorite method of hunting is to 
go to some place where birch trees have been recently 
felled. Around the birch-brown heaps the rabbits con- 
gregate to feed on the tender buds, and when alarmed 
manufacture tracks in double-quick order for safety; 
and to many of the bunnies flight does mean 
safety, for it requires a steady hand and an alert trigger 
finger to pot a rabbit with full head of steam on. 
Partridges are almost a thing of the past. In the 
thickets, where they formerly existed in flocks, only an 
occasional bird is seen, and the fact is evident that the 
grouse must be wholly protected for a time, else total 
extermination will be the result. The pheasants intro- 
duced here in Vermont several years ago by Dr. W. 
Seward W ebb seem to be suited to our frigid "winter cli- 
mate to perfection. On the estate where they were 
first introduced, in the town of Shelburne, they have 
greatly increased in numbei's, and have spread over a 
considerable area of surrounding country, and have, as 
a result of protection grown so tame that they fre- 
quently come to the farm buildings in search of" food, 
and often mingle with the farm poultry. Unfortunately, 
they build their nests in the fields, where the mowing 
machines destroy many eggs and young. Birds have 
also been set at liberty in this place and at Sheldon 
and St. Johnsbuiw. and in spite of persecution from law- 
defying hunters are reported as doing well. Kenewah. 
The FoEEPT ASD Stbeam is put to %)Tess each iceek on 
Tuesday. Correspondence intended for puhlication 
should reach us at the latest Ijy Monday, andi rmoh 
eofflkr cos pmctfiqaple, 
