May 28, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
423 
right opposite to that 'n' then gives his paddle a side rake 
n' whirls araoun' to come straight fur that slopin' place 
in the bank. Pap sot to the paddle like he wuz tryin' to 
shoot the sassifrax clean aout on the bank, 'n' when it 
hit, the baouw run way up yonder, 'n' that made the stern 
le'daown; 'n' if Uncle Laz'rus 'n' me didn't laugh when 
we see the tail end o' the dugaout sunk under 'n' Pap 
settin' in the water up to his arms, a-feelin' araound fur 
his new Winchester 'n' a-cussinM 
"You riccerlict that ole long muzzle loader j^ou seen 
up to the haouse? Hit kicks, 'n' when Pap shoots side- 
ways aout'n the sassifrax, he kinder leans for'ard jes' 's 
he jecks the trigger to kinder ketch the kick 'n' keep the 
boat settin' straight. One day las' December Pap wuz up 
to Little Cooterfoot 'n' he run acrast a big drove o' 
ducks, 'n' Pap got hisself fixed up to shoot both loads at 
onct. Pap never had did it before in the sassifrax, but 
he had it figgered aoi:t that he'd hev to lean for'ard twict 
as hard fur both kicks comin' at onct, 'n' when he leant 
an' jecked both triggers the tubes must 'a' been wet 'n' 
both caps snapped. Pap took Cooterfoot head fust, 'n' 
that's some o' that same rust on the old muzzleloader 
yit." - Tripod. 
Mississippi. 
Birds of Village and Field/* * 
Among the many popular bird hooks which have ap- 
peared within the last few years, Miss Florence A. Merri- 
am's la.st deserves, and will take, a high place. It is 
certainly one of the most useful of these books, because, 
as its title tells us, it is a "bird book for beginners," 
and it thus appeals to the widest possible class. It takes 
notliing for granted. It begins at the beginning. Not- 
withstanding the flood of popular bird literature that 
has recently appeared, instruction is still greatly needed 
by many people who are out of doors enough and suf- 
ficiently observing to note that there are birds, and 
to admire them and their ways, but who know about 
them little more than the popular names of the most 
common species. To instruct such individuals, to make 
them interested in bird life, is not only to perform a 
great service for those receiving the instruction — to 
widen the range of their interests, to stimulate their 
powers of observation, and to sharpen their intelligence 
— but is to perform a real service to the country at 
large by adding to the general interest in bird life, and 
so increasing the little army of bird protectors. Each 
bird protector is an assistant to the agriculturist, and so 
adds something to the production and to the wealth of 
the country. _ 
There are birds enough all around us, and Miss Mer- 
riam gives interesting examples; of a lady in Chicago, 
who in a shrubby back yard near one of the main thor- 
oughfares saw fifty-seven species in a year; of an orchard 
in Brattleboro, Vt., where an observer noted seventy- 
nine species in a year; and of Mr. Sage's observations 
within the limits of Portland, Conn., where ninety-six 
species have been known to nest. 
It is not then a question of finding birds, but .of rec- 
ognizing them when they are found, of knowing them 
by name. Miss Merriam has had a wide experience with 
field classes of beginners, of those who are absolutely 
CHIMNEY SWIFT. 
innocent of bird knowledge, and understands thoroughly 
the peculiar disadvantages under which they labor. It 
is for such persons that this book has been written, so 
that they may know the birds they see without shooting 
them. Miss Merriam says she kas "written for those 
who do not know a crow or a robin, as well as for 
toys who would get a start in bird work, and teachers 
who would prepare themselves for this increasingly pop- 
ular branch of nature study." She has written well for 
both these classes. 
It is with this in mind that Miss Merriam in one of 
the appendices of the book has given a list of points to 
note as an aid to identification; the seven points of 
* Birds of ViUage and Field, a Bird Book for Beginners. By 
Florence A. Merriam. Illustrated. Houghton, MifBin & Co. 
size, color, rnarkings, shape, appearance, movements, 
and flight, being subdivided in a way so suggestive as 
to teach the ^careful reader just what he should look for. 
The book's introduction is simple and unaffected, yet 
as direct as possible. It ends with an ample illustrated 
field color key, based on the markings of different birds 
which are easily to be seen in the field, and this when 
followed down will lead by page references to the de- 
scriptions and figures of the bird in the body of the 
book. On the other hand, if the student knows the 
family to which his bird belongs, he can turn to that 
family in the index, which will give him a reference di- 
recting him more quickly to the name of tlie bird. In this 
same introduction we are taught where to lind the birds, 
how to watch them, and how the birds affect the village 
trees, gardens and farms. To this last important matter 
LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. 
From Florence A. Merriam's "Birds of Village and Field." 
considerable space is given, and a plain story— illus- 
trated by examples— is furnished of the unconscious ser- 
vices which birds perform for man. Some space is 
given too to suggestions as to how to keep birds about 
the house. 
With "the field color key already referred to, the in- 
troduction ends and we come to the body of the book. 
Here no attempt is made to follow any scientific classi- 
fication. The birds which are most familiar are those 
which come first; those less known, later. Thus in five 
pages the charming story of the hummingbird is told, 
then that of the catbird, then of the crow, robin, wood 
thrush, chimney swift, and so on. These life histories, 
very brief though they often are, are full of feeling, and 
Miss Merriam has selected with rare good judgment 
those points concerning each species which are most 
pertinent to its story, and most likely to be interesting 
to the reader. In connection with the account of the 
ruffed grouse, for example, she mentions Mr. Thayer's 
law of protective coloration, published some little time 
ago in The Auk, in which he has shown that "animals 
are painted by nature darkest on those parts which tend 
to be most lighted by the sky's light, and vice versa." 
The sub-keys to the families are often remarkably sim- 
ple and plain,^ and will be very useful to the reader who 
has made sufficient progress in bird study to know even 
in the most general way what some of the characteristics 
of the chief bird groups are. 
_ Miss Merriam's book is very fully illustrated by draw- 
ings by Ernest Seton Thompson, Louis Agassiz Fuertes 
and John L. Ridgeway. Many species are figured in the 
charming groups for which Mr. Thompson is so well 
known, but much more important than these are the 
numerous illustrations of heads, bills, wings and feet 
there being 220 figures in the text, besides twenty-eight 
plates. Most of these illustrations merit very high 
praise. Especially charming are the plates of the chim- 
ney swift, of the hermit thrush, and of the Canada jay 
Among the illustrations are many of birds and of nox- 
ious insects which come from the Department of Agri- 
culture m Washington, 
Miss Merriam's various books on birds are all inter- 
esting and valuable, but we are inclined to assign the 
first place for usefulness to "Birds of Village and Field " 
and we hope for it a very large circulation 
The printing and binding are quite what might be ex- 
pected from the press of Houghton, MifBin & Co , to 
whose kindness we owe the accompanying illustrations 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on 
Tuesday. Correspondence intended for publication 
should reach us at the latest by Monday, and as much 
earlier as practioahle. 
East African Mammals. 
BV D. G. BLLIOT, F.R.S.E. 
(Continued from page 304 ) 
Baira Antelope {Dorco tragus megaloHs, Manges). Native 
Name, Baira-. 
This beautiful and very rare- antelope was only met 
with at one place by any member of my party. On three 
successive days Mr. Akeley saw a small band on one 
of the peaks known as Nasr Hablod, or the Virgin's 
Breast, about half way between our camp at Hullier and 
Hargeisa, It would seem to be strictly a mountain 
species, at home on the rocky cliffs and deep defiles of 
high peaks, running at full speed over the precipitous 
places with a sureness of foot and certainty of step that 
would seem wonderful for an animal to possess, if you 
did not know the peculiar shape of the hoof, and how ad- 
mirably it is adapted for clinging to steep inclines as 
Well as for guarding against shocks to the body when 
making long leaps downwards, The hoof is of an en- 
tirely diflferent shape from that of the klipspringer, ali- 
kud of the somalis (Oreotragus sylvator), in which genus 
the describer of this species placed it, but it is equally 
well padded, although in a different way, nor does it rest 
upon the ground in a like manner. The klipspringer 
stands entirely upon its toes, so to speak, that is on the 
tips of the hoofs, these being vertical with the ends only 
touching the ground. The hoof of the baira has a wide 
spread, and the two halves are narrow in front and 
pointed, forming a perfect cushion on which the animal 
walks and runs, keeping the hoof, unless at its extreme 
point, free of the ground. At my request Mr. Akeley 
has given me the following account of the capture of the 
specimens brought back by us; 
"I had killed an oryx, and sent my gun bearer to eatnp 
for a camel to transport the carcass back, and leaving 
my shikari to watch the animal, took a stroll about the 
jungle. The peaks of Nasr Hablod, or Virgin's Breast,, 
were only a few hundred yards in front of me, and I was 
irresistibly drawn toward them, influenced probably by 
the meorory of the big bull koodoo I had killed at their 
base the day before. I moved cautiously toward them, 
hiding myself as much as possible in the gullies and 
ravines, until I had drawn very near the base of the small 
peak, and stepped behind some huge rocks. Further I 
could not go without exposing myself to any animal 
in front of my position. From my post I took a careful 
look over the ground, and saw a band of antelope run- 
ning up the sides of the peak. They stopped in the shade 
of a spreading thorn tree and gazed in my direction. 
From their manner of moving and their great size and 
peculiar slope of their ears, they seemed to be koo- 
doo cows and calves. To my right was a great mass 
of rocks, which if I could reach I would be within two 
hundred yards of the animals, as the distance seemed to 
me at the time. I crawled on all fours behind the rocks 
and then made a wide detour, keeping m the gullies, and 
finally gained the desired place. Peering cautiously over 
the rocks I saw them still standing in the shade of the 
tree. I fired two or three times, my bullets all going 
high, and then I began to reaUze that instead of shooting 
at koodoo two hundred yards or more away, I was firing 
at a much smaller antelope only about seventy-five yards 
from me. The sleep mountain side strewn 'with small 
stones, together with the koodoo-like movements of the 
animals and their large ears, had completely deceived 
me. They were now thoroughly alarmed, but as they 
could not tell where the shots came from on account 
of the echoes they merely ran about in a confused way. 
I took careful aim and knocked one over, but he imme- 
diately rose and crawled under a bush. At the next shot 
I killed one in his tracks, and the remaining ones made a 
dash to escape, running past me at about forty yards. I 
succeeded in stopping one for a mom<^nt, but it rose to 
its feet and fell again two or three times, and at last 
stopped as I supposed for good. I then tried to take 
possession of my game and got within ten feet of the one 
I had first wounded and stood looking at it, surprised to 
find it was such a little fellow. It was a hard thing to 
come down from the idea of a big koodoo, one of the 
grandest of African antelope, to a little thing not over 
twenty inches high at the shoulder. I noticed that it had 
straight, sharp horns about four or five inches long, and 
just then it came to the conclusion it was time to dis- 
appear, and it did. I have never seen any animal move 
so quickly as did that one. I had a fleeting glimpse of 
him a few moments later going up the side of the oppo- 
site peak on three legs, and, from the way he traveled I 
think he could have got on fairly well with only one. I 
returned to the one that was really dead and found it 
to be an adult female. Then I went to look for the 
young one I had seen kicking the gravel, but found only 
a few drops of blood. Nearly roasted by the mid-day • 
sun, we took the one little antelope and went back to 
the oryx to find that a horde of vultures had eaten the 
carcass; my shikari, hearing so many shots, being un- 
able to remain behind, had disobeyed his orders and left 
the animal to come and see what I was shooting at. 
The camel arriving, we returned to camp with such booty 
as was left. 
"The next morning I returned again to the same 
place, and had hardly reached the base of the peak 
when the young baira jumped from almost under our 
feet and ran swiftly, but only for a short distance, as it 
was very weak. We soon captured it, and after hunting 
the mountains thoroughly without finding a trace of the 
others, returned to camp. I went back to this place near- 
ly every day for a week in hopes of getting an old male. 
Once I saw a bunch of four. After hunting everywhere 
with my shikari, and seeing nothing, we sat down on a 
large rock, when he suddenly made an exclamation, and 
looking in the direction he pointed, I saw the baira 
raoving swiftly up the side of the peak, stopping occa- 
sionally to look back. So perfectly were they protected 
by their color that when they stopped they Decame near- 
ly invisible, and if I took my eyes away from them it 
was almost impossible to find them again until they 
moved. We watched them until they disappeared over 
the top of the cone, and then climbed as fast as we 
could up the sides of the peak, hoping to head them 
off, but on looking carefully over the top we sa\y the 
nirnble creatures just leaving the base to go ont6 the 
plain. I took a few rapid shots at them, but only made 
