224 
FOHEST AND STREAM. 
[Maech 19, 1898. 
slender than those of the male. There is considerable 
variation in the coloring of indiAdduals and I hardly 
know what causes it. The typical style has a broad 
conspicuous chestnut band running lengthwise along the 
body just above the white of the belly. But some indi- 
viduals, evidently of an equal age, killed practically at 
the same time and in tlie same condition of coat, were 
entirely without this distinguishing mark. It may be 
possibly an exhibition of individual variation, for these 
specimens \yere not confined to any especial locality. 
I do not think, however, it was in any way an indica- 
tion of age, for fully adult animals were without the 
stripe, neither was this peculiarity confined to either sex. 
Speke's Gazelle {Gazella spekei). NAI'IVE Name^ 
This is the gazelle of the high plateau, and first ap- 
peared to us at Laferug. The two species seem to meet 
here, as both were seen in the vicinity of this locality, 
but Pelzeln's gazelle was not found any further to the 
south, the present species replacing it entirely. Speke's 
gazelle is smaller than its relative, but can never be 
confounded with it, as it is easily distinguished by its 
peculiar wrinkled nose, possessed by both sexes, but 
.greatly modified in the female. It inhabits the same 
kind of ground as Pe.lzeln's gazelle is found in — stony 
bare stretches with patches of stunted grass scattered 
over it — and it is very seldom met with among trees of 
any size, although I have known it to go into rather 
dense clumps of jungle. I think, however, on these oc- 
casions it sought such retreats as places of refuge and 
more from necessity than from choice. Both sexes pos- 
sess horns, those of the females being quite slender and 
rather straight. The horns of the male are rather stout, 
deeply ringed almost to the tip, and citrved backward 
at quite a different angle from those of Pelzeln's gazelle. 
It is a shy animal, at times quite wild, and one is obliged 
to take long shots to secure a specimen. As a rule it 
seemed as if the males generally led the small bands 
in the marches about the country they frequented, and 
I was somewhat surprised at this, for the reverse is 
generalljr the case among the deer and antelope. But 
of course there were instances when I saw the female 
piloting these bands, the male straggling after her in 
a very careless sort of way. All the individuals, how- 
ever, keep a pretty sharp watch, and when anything 
unusual is seen the whole band stops and regai^ds it 
intently, for the animals possess a good deal of curiosity 
and frequently stand and gaze a long time before com- 
mencing to run. When first startled they do not go very 
far, but stop and look back, and if they see nothing 
tvill commence to graze again or play with each other, 
the males indulging in mock battles or chasing one an- 
other with a great burst of speed; for they run with 
much swiftness. If followed persistently for a time they 
will leave the locality entirely, at least for a short period. 
This species soon obtained a fair idea of the range of 
an ordinary rife, but was deceived by that of the Lee- 
Metford and Mannlichers. 
[to be continued.] 
White-Thtoated Sparrows "Wintey in the North. 
New York, March 9. — Editor Forest and Stream: In 
your issue of March 12 a correspondent who saw a flock 
of white-throated sparrows in Central Park, New York 
city, on Feb. 26, inquires wliether this is not an early 
date for the species. The regular wintering of these 
birds (Zonotrichia albicoUis) in Central Park is well known 
to those who observe the. wild birds there, and some 
of them may be found almost any day from early October 
to the middle of May. Jonathan D wight, Jr. 
[This should have been noted; we have seen the birds 
wintering not only in New York, but In. southern New 
England.] 
iittie §ng mid 0m. 
Old Guns and New, 
San Francisco. — In a recent number of the Forest 
and Stream I recollect reading some allusions to old- 
time guns. As I sat in my easy chair after dinner this 
evening, smoking my pipe, my mind wandered back to 
my schoolboy days — or I might say my occasional days 
in school, when I did not run away and spend the ma- 
jority of them on the waters of the old Susquehanna in 
my skiff, fishing, to pay the penalty the next morning 
with a regularity that became chronic. Fishing was 
varied by stealing the old single-barreled shotgun from 
the kitchen closet. How well 1 remember that old 
flint-lock gun ! . 
It had a history; originally it belonged to an old 
farmer, who took it out one day to shoot a marauding 
skunk, which, althought but a few steps away, he missed. 
Then the skunk got in his work on the old man, who in 
his rage on missing imprecated the old gun and brought 
it down over a log, bending it in the shape -of a rain- 
bow. My governor happening to be driving past at the 
moment, stopped to laugh. This increased the old fel- 
low's "mad," and he apostrophized the old gun again, 
saying: "There! blank you! You never did shoot 
worth a cuss. Here, Squire, take the old thing out of 
my sight." And he pitched it into the buggy. 
A few days later my father took it to the village black- 
smith, an ingenious fellow, and said: "Here, Jones, try 
your skill and see if you cannot straighten the old gun." 
Jones scratched his head and remarked: "What a 
tremendous charge you must have been shooting in it. 
But I will see what I can do with it." He worked over 
the old gun at odd spells for a week, and straightened 
it out, barring a few wabbles that defied his best efforts. 
But the result was that ever after it acquired the repu- 
tation of being the best shooting gun in the town, for 
long shots and true ones; and many a wild pigeon we 
boys brought down with it; and later, when percus- 
sion locks came in fashion, it was altered to that style. 
But the old gentleman's pride was a double-barreled, 
flint-lock Manton, which was presented to him for legal 
services by a broken-down gentleman, a New York 
sportsman, who had nothing else to give. This I was 
never allowed to touch. 
Those were the days of wild pigeons galore, and they 
flew in flocks of thousands right through the single 
street of our village, low enough down to be reached; 
and my father was wont to stand in our front yard and 
knock them over by the dozen, supplying all the neigh- 
borhood. When I arrived at man's estate my first pur- 
chase was a Westley Richards, the cost of which ab- 
sorbed the savings of many a month's salary; and there- 
after my passion for guns resulted in the collection of 
those of every well-known maker, embracing a William 
Moore, Greener, and several others, at a cost of $250 
each, all muzzle loaders, for breech loaders had not 
then come into fashion. And there they all rest, in 
brackets, in the attic, and for them the best offer I could 
ever get was $10 each. But even now, when I go out 
shooting where game is not over plenty to demand rapid 
shooting, I take the William Moore or the Westley Rich- 
ards, and feel sure of bringing down my birds, for they 
are wonderful shooters. Again, I like to indulge in the 
old muzzle-loading style. It carries me back to my 
boyhood days. 
My first purchase of a breech loader was made one 
day in Paris, when strolling along; in the window of 
Lafourchaux's gun store I saw one for the first time, 
and going in, purchased it and brought it home. The 
first breech loader used pin-fire cartridges. A pin in 
the cartridge came up through a slot in the breech, and 
when the hammer struck this the cartridge was ignited. 
I was very proud of- my new gun, and one day after ar- 
riving home I started out to try it with a couple of 
dozen cartridges in my shooting coat pocket. Seeing 
some wild pigeons on a dry tree, I essayed to stalk them, 
and in doing so had to crawl over a slippery rock. Just 
when I essayed to rise to get a shot my feet went out 
from under me, and down I came, striking on the pocket 
containing my cartridges. Immediately there was a 
feu de joie equal to a Fourth of July, and a hot sensa- 
tion. I jerked off my coat, but the pop, pop contin- 
uel until half the cartridges had exploded, and I dumped 
the lot out on the rock to find the pocket on fire. Strange 
to say, the shot had not been started, but the paper had 
been burst through. This was the case in many experi- 
ments I afterward tried with pin cartridges, and J think 
it is the same with central-fire and rim-fire cartridges 
when exploded unconfined. I continued to use the gun, 
however, and never had any similar accident; but I 
was not proud of the gun as a shooter. Central and 
rim-fire cartridges soon displaced pin-fires; and now 
the guns of these days are simply perfection. When- 
ever I am in London I spend days in wandering around 
looking at the guns in the windows of the principal 
makers. They are simply beautiful, especially the small 
calibers, for ladies, .16, .18 and .20. I always feel as if I 
would like to wear one of them for a scarf-pin, although 
their size would be a little inconvenient. 
It has always been a great regret and sorrow that my 
dear old governor could not have lived to enable me 
to present him with a present-day breech loader, and 
what he would have prized even more, a split-bamboo, 
for he was a trout fisherman "from way back." He was 
the only one in that part of the country who used ex- 
clusively the fly, greatly to the wonderment of the old 
farmers, who would stand open-mouthed to see him toss 
out trout by the dozen from the then prolific creeks. It 
was my duty to accompany him, carrying a big basket, 
of an afternoon's fishing, and my backache gave evi- 
dence of the weight before the day ended. Every farm- 
er's boy was not then a fisherman, and the brooks of old 
Otsego and Delaware counties, in New York, were 
teeming with the Idng of fishes. So you may not won- 
der that the undersigned comes justly by inheritance by 
all this weakness for breech loaders and split-bamboos. 
And so, when I hear a man say he neither shoots nor 
fishes, and does not care for either, I button up my 
pocket and keep my hands on m)' watch ; but on second 
thoughts I say to myself: "Poor man, it may not be his 
fault; he may have had a father equally benighted, who 
had none of the pleasures of life to leave him." 
PODGERS, 
Maine and New Brunswick Game. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
It is truly refreshing to discover that there is one 
man permitted to live in Maine who has the courage to 
tell the truth with regard to the false and misleading 
statistics that are published from time to time to adver- 
tise the game attractions of that State. Your corre- 
spondent from Brewer, Me., sheds a flood of light on 
the method of computation pursued by the railway and 
express companies: 
"A great many of these are counted twice — ^the saddle 
counts, and then the head is counted. Also New Bruns- 
wick moose are counted which pass this way, and New 
Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland caribou 
heads which are received for mounting in Bangor all 
count." 
It was a wise man who said: "Figures won't lie, but 
liars will figure." Your correspondent might have added 
that some of the finest moose heads ever taken in New 
Brunswick are now being shown at the Boston Expo- 
sition as part of the Maine exhibit. 
Maine is a fine country for deer, but the chance for 
moose and caribou is rapidly approaching the vanishing 
point. Even according to the annual report for 1897 
of the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries and Game, it 
appears that it took 10,509 sportsmen to kill 250 moose 
and 239 caribou. In other words, the chances were about 
20 to I against the sportsman shooting either a moose or 
a caribou in Maine. When it is considered that fullj' one- 
third of these moose and caribou came from Canada, 
and that, as your Brewer correspondent describes, many 
of them were counted twice, the odds against the indi- 
vidual shooter might safely be placed at 40 to r. 
Comparisons are odious, but what are the facts in re- 
gard to big game in New Brunswick? It is impossible 
to keep anything approaching a correct record of the 
number of moose, deer and caribou shot by local hunt- 
ers in 1897, but a record has been kept of the moose and 
caribou killed by non-resident sportsmen. Eighty-six 
non-resident sportsmen took out licenses in New Bruns- 
wick last fall. Some of them took very short trips 
which gave them very little time to hunt. Yet these 
eighty-six gentlemen took out of the Province (and 
doubtless they all went into the Maine column) eighty- 
nine moose, seventy-six caribou and eleven bears. Only 
six parties failed to connect with either moose or caribou. 
Not many deer were shot, because they are not plenti- * 
ful in that section of the Province where moose and 
caribou are numerous. 
Maine should receive credit for just what belongs to 
it— a beautiful woodland country well stocked with deer, 
with tags on the guides, tags on the game, rifles resound- 
mg on every hill, and all the forest trails blazed with the 
mark of the mighty dollar. The commercial spirit is 
uppermost everywhere, and it only needs to locate brass 
bands, negro minstrel troupes and merry-go-rounds at 
all the principal camps in order to make the thing com- 
plete. When I want to go into the woods I want to go 
into the woods — not into a country where people with 
guns are crouched behind every stump, and where the 
presence of other hunting or fishing parties is contin- 
ually in evidence. 
As for the moose supply of Maine, it is practically 
non-existent. Even the Hon. Henry O. Stanley, for 
many years Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Game 
of Maine, is forced to admit this in a recent article in 
which he states: "But the moose, the most valuable, 
the most desirable, the most interesting of the big game 
of our State, are becoming so rapidly depleted in num- 
bers, m consequence of the ever increasing demand for 
their heads, that their extermination is probable in the 
very near future unless the strictest guard is put upon 
them. Indeed, one i-^iay say that only the protection al- 
ready given them has saved them from utter extinction 
before this time. What few there are are now confined 
to the eastern part of the State, and Oxford and Franklin 
counties know them no more." Frank H. Risteen. 
Fredericton, March 8. 
The Blue Grouse of Alaska. 
BY CHARLES, HAHOCKi 
The impenetrable jungle of the Alaskan forest, with 
Its windfalls of timber and its profusion of berries and 
succulent mosses, constitutes an incomparable nursery 
and cover for its fauna; but it is not a delectable country 
to hunt over. In "Our New Alaska" I have devoted 
considerable space to the game of the mountain ranges 
of the southeastern coast, in the course of which our 
Admiral Beardslee relates some personal experiences 
with the ptarmigan, which occupy the lofty barren pla- 
teaus above the timber line. But there are other repre- 
sentatives of the Gallin^e which merit the attention of 
the naturalist and sportsman, inasmuch as the gold 
miners are too occupied to hunt much or differentiate 
species. Chief of these are the blue grouse, ruffed grouse 
and spruce grouse, which are all very abundant in their 
several habitats, but hard to shoot and difficult to gather 
when shot by reason of cross-timbers, undergrowth 
and precipices. The blue grouse is the choicest of these 
three, and is not unlike the blue grouse of the Rockies- 
slightly larger than our Dakota sharptails, the hens 
being of about the same color. The male bird is of a 
slaty ash hue, and like phasianelhis carries a large air 
pouch on his neck, which is red and bare of feathers, 
a little like a turkey cock's. Along in May and June 
these male birds sit in the tops of trees and hoot at in- 
tervals all day long, but they are more difficuh to locate 
by the sound than the ruffed grouse of New England, 
which drum on a log, for they often seem a mile ofi; 
when perhaps they are scarcely looyds. away. Writers 
have hardly mentioned these birds hitherto, because 
they have not penetrated where they use. It is too tough 
a job, as will be seen from what follows. A mile through, 
the forests, climbing always, is an all day trip, and not 
without scratches. 
My interest in these birds has been revived at this 
juncture by the perusal of an old letter in the Hallock, 
Minnesota, Enterprise, from a resident of Juneau who 
occasionally takes an outing with the Presbyterian min- 
ister as occasion offers; and I dare saj'- your readers will 
be impressed by it more than by wh;it I might write 
myself. The trouble with old hunters is that they do 
not exploit the hardships of an outing as the more 
unsophisticated are apt to do, so that personal heroism 
does not play the active part it should in the narrative. 
But I will let my correspondent speak for himself. His 
name is H. Beer, and he says: 
"I go out about once a week in the season and we have 
good sport, and what is better we keep in good health 
by having lots of good exercise. Often we get up at 
3 o'clock in the morning. It depends on the tide as to 
what time to start, and I have started at midnight. [In 
that latitude it is as light as dawn at midnight in June.] 
Sometimes you must go over certain shallow bars at 
high tide, or you cannot go at all. We sail on row a few 
miles and then go ashore where we know the birds are 
to be heard. 
"As soon as it is day we hear far up the mountain 
side the hoot, hoot, hoot of the grouse. Then away 
we start for some of the hardest and most vexatious 
work I ever did. The birds are certain to be at least 
2,oooft. high; they keep in the upper fringe of the trees 
just below the snow line. Well, we climb and climb, 
over moss and fallen logs and loose stones and sharp 
crags, and most disagreeable of all through devil club. 
The devil club is very well named; it is a bush that grows 
6ft. or 8ft. high and is studded thick with thorns from 
top to bottom. The branches also run along the ground 
for a foot or two before they turn, so that as you strug- 
gle through it it is very apt to give you a slap in the 
face, and you are almost certain to get it in j'our hands 
unless you wear gloves. We .stilh occasionally hear our 
bird hooting away above us, so we fight our way on and 
on, and up and up, the perspiration oozing from every 
single pore. At times we are in peril, a single misstep 
may send us headlong hundreds of feet down, and leave 
us at the bottom a bruised and mangled corpse. After 
climbing quite a distance it may be you find yourself 
where you cannot get any higher, and you have to re- 
trace your steps and find another way. Presently, after 
two or three hours of the hardest kind of work, you find 
yourself breathless and exhausted at the clump where 
the sound tells you the bird must be. Your troubles have 
now commenced. It may be that the bird will cease 
to hoot, and all your climb has been in vain, so far as 
that bird is concerned. They stand perfectly still and it 
is impossible to find them unless they hoot. Then again 
