[Sept. 24, 1898. 
siskin-green hue; this bright color is limited to a space 
about 3 or 4in. below the level of the lake and to certain 
walls of the cavern. The bare arm immersed in the 
water partakes of the green color when the light is re- 
flected at one angle, and of the silvery blue color at an- 
other angle. The interior size of the cavern is not 
easily given, but the face of the overhanging rocks 
measures about 40ft., and they project about 15 to 20ft,, 
and it is surprising that so small a cavern can produce 
such a variety of fine effects. 
fawf* m & 
Orioles in Confinement. 
Stevensville, Pa. — Noting F. M. B.'s remarks in 
Forest and Stream of Sept. 3, I was surprised to read 
that the Baltimore oriole "cannot be caged, as it will 
kill itself when confined/' and that "even the young 
will pine away and die." Nine years ago a pair of 
orioles built their nest in a lofty elm in the rear of our 
house, and when the young were full feathered and grown 
a heavy storm beat one of them down, and my wife 
caged it. It continually called for company, and we 
placed it outside, where the mother bird seemed very 
solicitous of its welfare, alighting on the cage and in 
every, way showing great anxiety, and at the end of the 
second day we found it dead. The neighbors said it had 
been killed by its mother. But a few days after one 
from the same nest became entangled in some trailers, 
and I caught it, and after one day's confinement in- 
doors gave it to a lady who had another pair. For 
aught I know the birds are alive now, as after she 
had had them nearly two years she called me in to 
see them breakfast, and it was both amusing and in- 
structive. She was feeding them on pieces of crackers, 
which they relished; but before eating they would grasp 
each piece firmly with one foot and witli the other perch 
on the edge of the water dish, and soften the cracker 
by soaking it in the water. < ' 
I complimented her on her tact in educating birds, 
but she explained that they belonged to the "soft- 
billed species," -and unless furnished with soft food 
would perish from starvation. In this connection I 
would like to know whether others have noted not 
only the difference in the summer and autumn dress 
of the oriole, but the great variation of markings and 
colorings of different individuals. / W. W. McC. 
A Black "Woodchuck. 
Essex, N. Y., Sept. 10.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Yesterday, while returning from a squirrel hunt, I ran 
across and shot a black woodchuck. I have preserved 
the skin, which is quite handsome. It is about the color 
of the average bear skin, except for the nose, which is 
white. Examples of melanism in woodchucks seem fair- 
ly common here, as I have heard of several specimens 
being killed. Black squirrels are also fairly plentiful. 
It is a poor year for squirrels, however. Last year- 
Essex and Whallonsburgh engaged in a side hunt, and 
as a result about all" the breeding stock was killed off. 
The side hunt should be legislated against; the game 
law people busy themselves with much less impor- 
tant matters. 
I have killed five gray squirrels with a .22cal. Marlin 
repeater, out of six seen. Squirrel hunting with a rifle 
is the best of practice for deer hunting, as it gives one 
a confidence in his aim, which it is necessary to renew 
and cultivate after a year's inaction. J. B. B. 
PRIZES FOR AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHS, 
The Forest and Stream offers prizes for meritorious 
work with the : camera, under conditions which follow: 
The prizes will be divided into three series: (1) for 
live wild game; (2) for game in parks; (3) for other sub- 
jects relating to shooting and fishing. 
(1) For live game photographs three prizes are of- 
fered, the first of $50, the second of $25, and the third of 
$10. 
(2) For live game in parks, for the best picture, a 
prize of $10. 
(3) For the best pictures relating to Forest and 
Stream's field 5 — shooting and fishing, the camp, camp- 
ers and camp life, sportsman travel by land and water, 
incidents of field and stream — a first prize of $20, a sec- 
ond of $15, a third of $10, and for fourth place two prizes 
of $5 each. 
There is no restriction as to the time nor as to where 
fhe pictures have been made or may be made. 
Pictures will be received up to Dec. 3T this year. 
All work must be original; that is to say, it must not 
have been submitted to any other competition or have 
been published. 
There are no restrictions as to the make or style of 
camera, nor as to size of plate. 
A competitor need not be a subscriber to the Forest 
and Stream. 
All work must be that of amateurs. 
The photographs will be submitted to a committee, 
who, in making their award, will be instructed to take 
into consideration the technical me_ .Us of the work as 
.1 photograph, its artistic qualities, and other things be- 
ing equal, the unique and difficult nature of the subject. 
Photographs should be marked for identification with 
initials or a pseudonym only, and with each photograph 
should be given, answering to the initials, the name of 
sender, title of view, locality, date and names of camera, 
and plate or film. 
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 practicable. 
The "Briefs" Pictures. 
The illustrations in the current edition of -Game Laws in Brief, 
Mr. Charles Hallock says, well represent America's wilderness 
sports. The Brief gives all the laws of the United States and 
Canada for the practical guidance of anglers and shooters. As 
an authority, it has a long record of unassailed and unassailable 
accuracy. Forest and Stream Pub. Co. sends it postpaid for 25 
cents, or your dealer will supply you. 
In Virginia Game Fields. 
Editor Forest, and Stream: 
I am located in Sussex county, Virginia, near an em- 
bryo town called Lumberton. I am here for the hunt- 
ing season, as usual, which opens for deer Sept. I ; for 
quail, Oct. 15, and might be said to stand open the year 
round for fox hunting, the favorite sport of the descend- 
ants of the old English gentry, who brought their love 
of the chase from "Merrie England," along with their 
thoroughbred foxhounds, more than a century ago. 
I chanced the other day upon a tin poster which ex- 
horted me in big white letters to "Report your luck to 
Forest and Stream," hence this communication. More- 
over, I have seen no report from this favored section in 
your columns since the seventies, when Chasseur con- 
tributed a number of interesting articles describing this 
"happy hunting ground" of the aborigines, and later of 
the flower of Virginia sportsmen from the cavaliers of 
King Charles' time to the sport-loving youth of to-day. 
The love of sport is as much a heritage with them 
as the- thoroughbred deer, fox and bird dogs, whose 
pedigrees have passed down from sire to son for gen- 
erations, and may well be called "F. F. Vs." 
I am training two brace of pups from this stock, and 
at four months old they follow to the fields, starting 
covey after covey of young birds. They stand as 
staunch and point as handsomely as old dogs. 
It is a pretty picture— the little dogs pointing in 
every direction at the fledgelings hidden in the stubble. 
When they find a covey old enough to rise, it is amusing 
to see them circle, heads up and nostrils wide; amazed 
at the sudden flight of their game. 
Such dogs hunt as instinctively as they swim, and 
need no breaking in, but must learn the words of. 
command and instant obedience. I never knew one 
of this breed to be gunshy, or to fail to retrieve on land 
or water. 
Quail are reported more than usually abundant this 
season, owing to the protection they have enjoyed for 
the past two years, and doubtless numbers have mi- 
grated from North Carolina (close by), whither our 
sportsmen resorted in great numbers when they were 
no longer permitted to shoot quail in their own State. 
Three years ago this sunny land was visited by the 
most unheard-of freeze, which locked the land in ice 
and sncAv from the last of December to the last of 
February. Birds froze and starved under the snow- 
crust by thousands in the fields, and those seeking the 
shelter of barns or stacks were trapped or shot by 
farmers' boys, and caught by hawks and foxes, until the 
snow was dappled with feathers everywhere. 
So great was the destruction that the State Legisla- 
ture took prompt measures to protect the birds, and 
prohibited quail shooting for two years. The law was 
very generally observed, and the result is a super- 
abundance of birds— partly owing, however, to the two 
mild winters and unusually fine breeding seasons follow- 
ing the freeze, and the supposed migration from North 
Carolina, where the hunting was excessive, and gave 
the birds no rest. . . ; 
I have no "luck" to report with deer. Of the tour 
killed here in the past week I had no share in the 
slaying— only hearing the music of the chase from afar, 
for it never came near me. The style of hunting here is 
peculiar The men are placed on "stands" which the 
deer are supposed to pass en route for the river, which 
they invariably seek to baffle the dogs. The mounted 
"driver" follows the trail and encourages the dogs with 
short yells till the deer is "jumped" from his bed. He 
usually has the first shot, but must often shoot from his 
horse," so his chance is not first rate. As the deer takes 
his accustomed way to the river, the standers have a 
show But alas! if he takes another route, they are 
hot in it. L. P. Blow. 
Indian Modes of Hunting. 
Otters. 
With steel or wooden traps is the only systematical 
way of hunting these animals. They are, of course, 
hunted for their pelts in the north country of Canada, 
and not for sport, as in Scotland. A few are shot, but 
these are met with by chance. 
November is when the Indian sets his traps for otters. 
They have then their full winter coats on; and it is just 
before the small lakes and rivers set fast. 
Their resort is generally in some chain of small 
lakes with creeks connecting the chain, and their home, if 
they can find one, is an empty beaver lodge. They pre- 
fer 'such a place, as after the ice is taken in fishing along 
shore, they carry the fish into one of the "washes," where 
they can breathe and eat with safety and comfort. 
The otter is a great enemy of the beaver, but never 
willingly courts an encounter; yet, every time they 
meet, there is a terrible battle. I remember years ago 
coming out on a small lake about sundown, and seeing 
a great commotion on the surface of the water a few 
hundred yards out, jumped into my canoe and quietly 
paddled out. As I drew near, I noticed two black ob- 
jects engaged in a deadly conflict. Although they must 
have observed the canoe, they paid no attention, but con- 
tinued the fight, sometimes disappearing beneath the 
surface, fast to each other, for a full minute. 
When within gunshot, I made out the combatants to 
be an otter and a beaver, and could have despatched the 
two with one shot, only I could plainly see they were 
both very much exhausted, and I wished to see which 
would gain the day. 
The end was nearer than I expected. Once more they 
disappeared beneath the waters, each maintaining the 
same deadly grip of the other's neck; a few moments 
later the beaver floated to the surface on its back, dead. 
I looked about for. the otter, and saw him swimming 
toward the shore, bleeding profusely from many wounds 
and evidently hurt to the death. I followed, however, 
with my gun full cocked, ready if need be to shoot 
him; but the beaver's long, sharp, spade-like teeth had 
done their work well, for the otter all at once rose 
half out of the water, pawed about for a minute in a 
blind way, turned over on his side, gave one convulsive 
quiver, and he also was dead. 
A No. 3 Newhouse trap is generally used. In fact, this 
number is called throughout the country "otter trap." 
These traps are set at the overflow of beaver dams and 
otter slideways during the open water, and at little port- 
ages used by water rats crossing from one bend of a 
small river to another. No bait is used; the trap is set 
in about 4in. of water, with a picket out in deep water 
to tie the chain to, and a small piece of castorum on a 
forked stick. 
The odor of the beaver castor has a very alluring ef- 
fect on most all animals, and is greatly used by the 
hunter. , 
Traps for otters are set in the following way, under the 
ice: A place is selected in some small creek, connecting 
two lakes, where signs of otters are found. • These signs 
are noticeable at the discharge of the lake, where the 
lake ice thins off into open water, for the ice is so thin 
that the otter readily breaks a hole to come out on the 
ice to eat his fish. The otter is a fish-eating animal, and 
is very expert in catching them. 
Their slideways are generally made on some moss- 
covered, rocky promontory, jutting out into a lake. 
Here they will climb up one side and slide down the 
other for hours at a time. 
Otters, when taken young, are readily tamed and be- 
come great pets. 
Another way of setting traps in winter is under the 
ice in some creek where otters are known to resort. 
The ice is cut away from the bank, outward, for about 
3ft. long by ift. or so wide. Each side of this cut is 
staked with dry sticks, driven into the mud or sandy 
bottom. The trap is set between the stakes at the outer 
end, in about 4m. of water at least; that is, the water may 
be deeper than that, but two cross sticks are so placed 
that the otter in entering must go under the sticks and 
thus gets caught. The picket to secure the trap chain 
to is out from the trap, as in open-water time. 
To induce him to enter, a small whitefish or trout is 
placed on a forked stick near the shore, and is so fixed 
that it appears to be alive and swimming. As soon as 
the trap is struck, the otter jumps backward into deep 
water, and for want of air is soon dead. 
Martin Hunter. 
Trapping the Coon. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The raccoons your correspondent writes of which 
cannot be taken except in the water must differ widely 
in their habits from Maine raccoons. While I have 
never set any except log traps on purpose for raccoons, 
I have caught many of them on the land in traps set 
for other game, and have always considered them one 
of the easiest kinds of animals to trap. In fact they 
are always bothering one by getting into traps set for 
other animals. I have caught them in traps set on the 
land for bears and otters, and I can remember taking, 
fourteen in traps set for mink. 
To show how little fear they have of a trap, I once 
hooked a line of eighteen traps set for mink around two 
lakes. About half of these were log traps; every one of 
the eighteen traps had either been robbed of what game 
had been taken, or had been sprung by raccoons. The 
log traps not having been heavily enough weighted to 
hold a raccoon, were all torn down just as. a fisher 
destroys a sable trap. In the steel traps I had part of a 
nice mink (mink were worth some seven dollars then) 
and the remains of a weasel both eaten out by the coons. 
A coon's foot and one small coon. Both forelegs of 
this one were badly bruised where he had been in log 
traps. As the traps being set for mink were too small 
for the raccoons to enter, they had reached their paws 
in and pulled out the bait, and the bruised forelegs of 
this one proved that he had been caught more than once. 
On the second look after this I caught the same one 
whose foot I had taken two weeks before. He was a 
very large coon, and the wound had not fully healed. 
My other steel traps were sprung by the coons pulling 
the bait sticks into them, as the houses were made for 
mink, and were not deep enough for a large animal like 
a raccoon. I once set a log trap on purpose for a 
coon, and caught him. Then caught lots of them in 
traps set partly in water for muskrats. I have always 
found them as easy to trap as a skunk or lynx, which 
are two of the easiest animals to trap. I have bought 
hundreds of their skins, which were taken in traps set 
on the land. A great many are caught every year by 
our farmers, who know very little about trapping,, but 
who catch them when they are destroying their corn. 
I knew one farmer to trap five in his corn in two nights. 
While I am willing to credit a coon with a great deal 
of "head stuffing," I have never seen one use his cun- 
ning in trying to avoid traps, but I only know about the 
raccoons we have in Maine. They may be deficient in 
their education about traps, but when it comes to de- 
vices for getting away when trapped, or when cut out of a 
log or hollow tree, I will back them against any coons 
in the United States, including all the recent additions to 
our territory. M. Hardy. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
My experience in trapping coons extends over half a 
century, with a record in the hundreds, fully ninety per 
cent, of which were taken in traps set in the ground. 
The writer who stated that coons cannot be thus trap- 
ped evidently belongs to the class who "know a great 
lot that isn't so." Warfield. 
