366 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 7, 1898. 
Range of the Mountain Sheep, 
At various times in past years I have called on readers 
of Forest and Stream to give me information concern- 
ing the range of the white goat (Oreamnos) and the 
prong-horned antelope (Antilocapra) , and the distribution 
of these two species has been indicated on maps printed 
in the Forest and Stream. For many of the data, for 
these maps I have been indebted to correspondents whom 
I have never met. 
I now beg the assistance of your readers for some facts 
bearing on this same subject of present distribution in 
connection with the mountain sheep, and shall be very 
grateful to each one who may be willing to send me any- 
thing on this subject. 
What I desire from every individual familiar with the 
species is a series of dates — as close as possible — telling 
when and Avhere he has observed mountain sheep from 
the year 1890 to the present time; the localit}^ of each ob- 
servation should be given as exactly as possible, it being 
understood that the precise locality will not be published, 
nor publicly given in anj' form which will enable hunters 
Number seen. 
How often? 
Character of country as to — 
(a) Roughness. 
(b) Aridity. 
(c) Timber. 
What is known as to summer and winter ranges? 
Have any been killed recentlj'? 
Are they much hunted? 
With this letter I am asking the Forest and Stream 
to print a blank map of the Western country, and on 
this map I would ask each correspondent who may be 
wihing to interest himself in the range of the mountain 
sheep to indicate, by a black dot, each locality where 
he has observed this species. Each mark so received 
will be transferred to a general map, to be printed later 
in an article giving the results of this inquiry. 
As has often been said, data such as I am requesting 
from readers of the Forest and Stream are of the ut- 
most importance to naturalists. The rapiditj' with which 
our large game is disappearing makes it extremely de- 
sirable that records such as these should be set down 
without further delay. Knowing the interest felt in such 
SKETCH MAP FOR RANGE OF THE MOUNTAIN SlIEEP. 
to reach the special sheep country of which the corre- 
spondent writes. In naming this country, he should give 
State or Territory, and county, and should especially 
give the name of the nearest stream draining the locality 
and of the larger river to which that stream is tributary. 
The numbers of sheep seen at each observation should be 
given with great particularity, and it should be stated 
whether the animals were seen more than once at any 
time, or on any trip, and whether they seemed abundant 
or few in number. 
Something should be stated as to the character of the 
country where the observations were made. First, as to 
its roughness; is it a bad land country, or a pi-airie coun- 
try, with high buttes, or a region of rocky mountain 
peaks? Second, as to its aridity; is it a country well 
watered or dry? Is the rain fall heavy or slight? Third, 
is it a timber country? 
Incidentally, two other questions might be answered. 
Have any sheep been killed recenth' in the locality under 
consideration, and are they much hunted there? 
We are all aware that within a few years the naturalists 
have announced that in America — instead of the single 
species that old hunters knew — four species of mountain 
sheep are found. These are Ovis canadensis, 0. dalli, O. 
nelsoni and 0. stonei'. It is not to be imagined that any 
large proportion of the hunters Avho ma}^ have observed 
mountain sheep will recognize the specific differences on 
which these forms are based, and with our present limited 
knowledge as to these the locality and the character of 
the country must be depended on to give hints as to 
which species is found there. ^ 
I repeat below the different points to whix;h I urge 
special attention, but should be glad to have each corre- 
spondent give m«, in addition to these data, as full an ac- 
count as possible of the species as he knows it. 
Mountain Sheep. 
Ovis . 
Observer's address. 
Dates of observation since 1890. 
Locality (giving State, or Territory, and county, but 
especially name of nearest streEira and the nver to which 
it is tributary). 
matters by many of the readers of the Forest and 
Stream, I confidently look forward to receiving a great 
fund of information from them. I may add that any 
correspondent who will give the name and address of 
any friend or acquaintance familiar with the mountain 
sheep, who is not a reader of Forest and Stream, is 
requested to do so, in order that I may send to such per- 
son a copy of this letter and the blank map which ac- 
companies it. Geo. Bird Grinnell. 
New York, May 1. 
Western Small Mammals. 
In Publication No. 27 of the Field Columbian Museum 
Mr. D. G. Elliot, Curator of Zoology, gives an anno- 
tated description of the mammals represented in several 
collections made for the museum by W. W. Price, Dr. 
S. E. Meek, G. K. Cherrie and E. S. Thompson. These 
collections come from the States of Iowa, Wyoming, 
Montana, Idaho and California, and from varying locali- 
ties, ranging from the coast up to mountain peaks of 
an altitude of io,oooft., while others in Nevada and 
southern California represent peculiarly arid and desert 
regions. The collection comprised over 2,500 speci- 
mens, and in many cases species were represented by 
very large series — in one .case, for example, by 416 speci- 
mens. Several new species and subspecies were f&und 
in this great collection, which Mr. Elliot here describes. 
The species represented in this collection are chiefly ro- 
dents, though there are a few insectivorous weasels, and 
one Bassaris. 
New York Zoolog:icaI Society. 
The second annual report of the New York Zoologi- 
cal Society has just been issued. It is a handsome 
pamphlet of 143 pages, illustrated by a number of fine 
half-tone engravings and by three maps, one of which 
is a large folding sheet, colored and showing the situa- 
tions chosen in the Park for the different animals to 
be exhibited. The volume contains lists of the board 
of managers, of the officers of the society, of the mem- 
bers; a resolution passed Oct. 6, 1897, in memory of the 
flon. Wm. A. Stiles; the report of the executive com- 
mittee; and the Treasurer's statement, showing the b&U 
ance in the Society's treasury to be $37,862.66. The total 
subscriptions to the fund for building and colletitions 
amount to $103,550. The membership of the society 
at the date of publication of this report was 600, and it 
is confidently believed that before long this number 
will be multiplied several times. 
Three communications have a place in the report: 
The London Zoological Society and its Gardens, by W. 
T. Hornaday; A School of Animal Painting and Sculp- 
ture, by Ernest Seton Thompson; and the Destruction 
of our Birds and Mammals, by W. T. Hornaday, re- 
cently noticed in these columns. The whole report is 
one of very great interest. ■ 
0dni^ md 0nn. 
__ |On the Pickerel River, 
Milton, Ont. — As I was somewhat under the weather 
last October, and believed that what I needed was an 
outing in the woods, I set out about the middle of the 
month, in advance of the party with which I have hunted 
deer during a number of seasons, and took up my quar- 
ters in a backwoods hotel on the road to our camp on 
the Pickerel River, in the Parr}' Sound District, Ont. 
I brought with me my shotgun and fishing tackle, and 
put in the time until the end of the month shooting 
ruffed grouse and angling for black bass, and pickerel. 
As birds were less plentiful than usual, owing to a cold, 
wet spring, which had killed off the yolmg oheS, and 
as it was rather late in the season for bass fishing, I did 
not get enough of either to claim a record or to earn 
the name of fish or game hog. But I put in the time 
very pleasantly, and was able to express a couple of 
dozen birds home. 
Incidentally I looked after the preparation of a hunt- 
ing camp, ten miles from the hotel, by two sons of a 
settler with whom we had stored our outfit after our 
previous season's hunt. They put a new roof on one 
of the smaller buildings of a deserted lumber camp, 
covering it with tarred paper; built bunks against the 
walls; made a dining table; and set up a sheet-iron 
stove. 
On the evening of Oct. 29 the rest of my party ar- 
rived at our hotel, after a tramp of thirteen miles from 
Ah Mic Harbor, where they had landed from the steam- 
er. Our supplies and baggage were brought thence in 
a wagon, but the roads were too bad and rough for com- 
fortable riding. Our party included Ed and John, my 
old-time hunting companions; Johnston, who had been 
with us in 1895; my son Kenneth, who had made his 
debut in 1896, in his sixteenth year; and George and 
Fred Hewson. The Hewson brothers were new addi- 
tions to our party, George being an experienced hunter 
and Fred a novice. 
We remained at our hotel over night, and set out for 
camp early next morning. We reached the shanty in 
due time, and our eyes were gladdened by an examina- 
tion of the mud in a salt-lick which had been made by 
emptying into a slough the brine from the meat used by 
the timber men. The mud was one mass of deer tracks, 
but all appeared to be some days old, the smell of the 
tarred paper on the roof having apparently kept the deer 
away after it was put there. 
By Monday morning, Nov. i, when the season opened, 
we were ready for business, and as the weather was wet, 
left our dogs in camp and set out for a still-hunt. Ken- 
neth got first blood. He, John and George went to a 
large beaver meadow about two miles from^ camp, and 
had just separated when a buck walked out in the open 
about 50yds. from Kenneth, who put a bullet through 
it behind its shoulders, and as it made off gave it an- 
other, which broke one of its hindlegs and brought it 
to a standstill. This should have been enough, but boy- 
like he fired again, put another ball close to his first, 
and brought the buck, a fair-sized one with a six-point 
head, to the ground. John and George turned in to 
help dress and hang up the deer. While the three were 
busily engaged at this, having laid their rifles aside, a 
doe and two fawns appeared. George was the first to 
get hold of a rifle. He got Kenneth's instead of his 
own, and let fly at the doe, which was standing broad- 
side to him, about 50yds. awa}^ He missed her clean, 
and she did not give him a second chance, but was out 
of sight in no time. George accounted for his failure 
by the fact that he had not used his own rifle; but the 
boys wouldn't have it that way, and laid it to buck ague. 
The question as to which it was remains unsettled. 
No more deer were killed on that day, and as the 
weather cleared up and remained fine up to Saturday, 
we ran our dogs day after day; but we had indifferent 
luck, for the larger deer, instead of taking to the run- 
ways on which we had had good luck during former 
seasons,' almost invariably went away from, instead of 
coming to, us. We saw a number of fawns which we 
might "have shot, but according to our rule let theni go 
and waited for something larger. Two does were killed 
on the lunways, Fred getting one of them, and George 
bagged a third at his stand, but without the assistance 
of the dogs, which had not been near him. He heard 
the doe walking through the underbrush, finally saw H 
about looyds. away, and dropped it with a bullet through 
its neck. 
Ed was not far away, arrived on the scene just as 
George was bleeding the doe. noticed that the bullet 
had gone through a 4in. hemlock before landing m the 
animal's neck, and asked for an explanation. George 
had one ready. He said that his shot was no fluke; that 
when the deer appeared all he could see of her was 
part of her neck; that the only way to reach it was 
through the hemlock; that he had aimed at its center; 
and that the result was before them. This explanation 
was reported by Ed on reaching camp, and George was 
the recipient of numerous compliments on his ingenuity; 
but what puzzled the boys was why he had aimed to hit 
the part of the doe's neck which he could not see. 
Saturday morning was very wet— so wet that we were 
late about starting; but finally I announced that I was 
going to still-hunt around a beaver meadow at another 
deserted lumber camp. George said he would go with 
