March ii, iggp] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
188 
more logical (remembering the stubborn fact that the 
dog was certainly incapable of acts requiring less rea- 
soning powers than the process of reasoning out aid 
for its master)? 
Mr. Mather says: "The man who denies reason to the 
dog has never trained or studied a dog." Now, even at 
the risk of a sure-enough Donnybrook, I flatly deny that 
statement. I have bred, kept, used, studied and loved 
dogs for forty-five years at the least; I have had dogs of 
as high natural intelligence as any J have ever read relia- 
ble accounts of, and I have had many dogs perform as 
wise acts any I have seen reliably stated; yet 1 never saw 
an intelligent act in one of my dogs that was not read^ 
ily accounted for by its previous acts and experiences. 
3ne instance will sufiice to illustrate the wliole class of 
acts that are generally attributed to reasoning without 
any justification therefor, x^ep came to a door carrying 
a stick in his mouth too long to go through the door, 
and after many failures, laid it down, and after a bit 
picked it up by one end and dragged it through. Now 
there was not a spark of reasoning in thai, and T am 
not quite sure that it was particularly intelligent. Nep 
had long known that he could drag a heavy stick by an 
end when he could not carry it, and being tired by his 
repeated efiforts to get the stick throu^-h, resorted to his 
tired method. 
It occurs to me that a still stronger case than that of 
wounded birds might have been cited by Col. Alexander 
against the theory that wounded or frightened animals 
transmit their fear of man to succeeding generations, if 
it is true that the alligator of the South was very fero- 
cious when first known to civilized man, and has now 
become verj'- timid, for I believe that the saurians pay 
no attention whatever to their young, and therefore could 
not instruct them. But it would seem a sensible theory 
that one frightened animal display's its fright to others 
of its kind who have not had its experience, and they 
learn, by imitation, from that experienced one. Anyhow, 
that is rather a better guess than the instructing one. 
W. Wade. 
0.\KMONT, Pa. 
Introducing the Skylark. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In regard to answering your interrogatory in your 
issue of the 20th inst., will first state that the skylark 
(Alandu arensis), which is famed for the beauty and 
power of its song, is found throughout Europe. It is 
about 7in. in length and of plain brownish colors. It 
does not alight on trees, but lives on the ground, where 
it builds its nest. Lays about five eggs of a grayish 
color, sprinkled with brown specks. In some parts of 
Europe it is used as food, and it is said to be an excel- 
lent little bird for this purpose. Statistics inform us that 
five millions were brought annually into Leipsic, and the 
ofiicial return states that during the winter of 1867 and 
'68 one million and a quarter were taken at Dieppe, 
France. An attempt was made here (Cincinnati) about 
twenty-five years ago to introduce the skylark and sev- 
eral other species of European birds, but it only suc- 
ceeded in the case of one species, viz., the sparrow, an 
■unmitigated pest, whose worthless character has been 
shown. The injury done by this anarchist vagabond 
among birds is far-reaching and very great, principally 
in driving away our beautiful native birds, depriving us 
of their aid in destroying insect depredators, and beauty 
and charm of their plumage and song. 
The society who imported these birds called them- 
selves, I believe, the Cincinnati Acclimatization Society, 
Armin Tenner, secretary. The skylarks liberated by 
them on one of the hilltops west of Burnet Woods 
Park lived two or three years and then disappeared. I 
have often heard them sing there. Introducing birds 
into a new country is a very risky and doubtful experi- 
ment. In some rare cases it is of value, but in a ma- 
jority of cases is disturbing and injurious to the fauna 
of the country imposed upon. The bird fauna of North 
America is one of the finest in the world, and should 
be protected and encouraged, and not interfered with 
in any way. I cannot find words strong enough to 
condemn the habit of introducing all sorts of animals 
into our country, without regard to the desirability of 
the species. It is unwise and unpatriotic. 
The European sparrow, the Hessian fly, the cabbage 
butterflies, etc., will do more damage a thousand times 
over, than all the desirable species will do good. 
Nd bird has received greater attention from the lit- 
eratures—prose and poetic — than the skylark. Prof. 
Wilson, glorious "Kit North," the "Old Man Elo- 
quent," famed alike for feats of herculean strength and 
daring, and for scholastic accomplishments, the deer- 
stalker and the salmon-spearer, the learned professor 
of languages, the acute critic, in writing of this delicious 
songster, says: "Higher and higher than ever ro.se 
the tower of Belus, soars and sings the lark, the lyrical 
poet of the sky. Listen! and the more remote the 
bird, the louder is his hymn in heaven. He seems in 
his loftiness to have left the earth forever and to have 
forgotten his lovely nest. The primrose and the daisies 
and all the sweet hill flowers must be unremembered in 
the lofty region of light. But just as the lark is lost — 
he and his song together — both are again seen and 
heard wavering down the .sky, and in a little while he is 
walking contented along the furrows of the braided corn 
av on the clover lea that has not felt the plowshare for 
half a century." 
No less h\\\ of the true, poetry of nature, and of a 
healthful sentiment of morality, is that passage in the 
writings of Washington Irving, which runs thus: 
"Of all birds I should like to be a lark. He revels in 
the brightest time of day, in the happiest season of the 
year, among fresh meadows and opening flowers, and 
when he has sated himself with the sweetness of earth 
he wings his flight up to heaven as if he would drink 
in the melody of the morning stars. Hark to that note! 
How it comes thrilling doAvn upon the ear! What a 
stream of music, note falling over note in delicious 
cadence! Who would trouble his head about operas 
and concerts, when he could walk in the fields and hear 
such music for nothing? There are homilies in Na- 
ture's works worth all the wisdom of the schools, if we 
cnuld but read them rightly; and one of the most pleas- 
ant lessons I ever received in time of trouble was from 
hearing the note of the skylark." 
This is not all, for the poets have fairly idolized this 
bird in mellifluent verse as if it were the most valued 
thing on earth. Shelley's magnificent ode to the sky- 
lark is in most delicious stanzas. Hear him as we 
quote but a few of his verses: 
"Ttail to thee, blithe spirit I 
BiriJ ihui nevet wert, 
That trom lieaven^ or near it. 
Fourest thy full heart 
In profuse strains of unprenipdltalnl ail 
"Higher still and higher 
Fiom the earth thou .springest 
Like a clowd of fire; 
The blue deep thou wingest, 
And singing still dost soar, and soaring' ever singest. 
"In the golden lighliiing 
Of the sunken sun, 
O'er which clouds are brightening 
Thou dost float and run, 
T.ike an unembodied joy whose race is- fast begun. 
"The pale purple even 
Melts aro^md thy flight. 
Like a star of heaven 
Tn the broad daylight 
Thou art seen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight. 
"What objects are the fountains 
Of thy happy strain? 
What fields or waves or mountains? 
What shapes of sky or plain? 
What love of thy own kind? What ignorance of pain? 
■'With thy clear keen joyance 
T^angour cannot be; 
Shadow of annoyance » 
Never came near thee; 
Thou lovest, but ne'er knew love's satiety. 
"Waking or asleep, 
Thou of death ' must deem 
Things more true and deep 
Than we mortals dream, 
Or how could thy notes flow in such a constant stream? 
"Better than all measures 
Of delightful sound, 
Better than all treasures 
That in books are found, 
Thy skill to poets were, thou scorner of the ground." 
This is indeed a glorious tribute of admiration, a meed 
of song such ,as has been seldom offered to bird or other 
living creature. How rich it is in poetical imagery, 
how full of power and pathos and passionate energy of 
feeling; the stanzas which we have omitted are fully equal 
to those quoted, and the whole poem is the most perfect 
thing of the kind that we know of, except, perhaps, 
Keats's exquisite ode to. the nightingale. 
James Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, the plaided moun- 
taineer, also takes up the lay of the lark in a merry, 
inspiring straiii, as follows: 
"Bird of the wilderness, 
Blithesome and cumberless, 
Light be thy matin o'er moorland and lea! 
Emblem of happiness. 
Blessed is thy dwelling place! 
Oh! to abide in a desert with theet 
"Wild is thy lay and loud. 
Far on the down cloud; | 
Love gives it energy, love gave it birth. 
Where on thy dewy wing, 
Where art thou journeying? 
Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth, 
O'er fell and mountain sheen, 
O'er moor and mountain green. 
O'er the red streamers that herald the day, 
Over the cloudlet dim, 
Over the rainbow's rim. 
Musical cherub, hie, hie. thee away! 
"Then when the gloaming comes, 
Low in the heather blooms, 
.Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be' 
Emblem of happiness 
Bless'd is thy dwelling place! 
Oh, to abide in the desert with thee!" 
Who would not take his stand on the breezy hilltoo 
with Milton 
"To hear the lark begin his flight, 
And, singing, startle the dull night, 
From his watch tower in the skies, 
Till the dapple dawn arise." 
To join with Shakespeare's splendid burst of exultation 
"Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings. 
And Phcebus 'gins to rise 
His steeds to water at those springs. 
On chaKced flowers that lie '" 
And to_ listen to the voice of some dainty Ariel or un- 
seen spirit of nature, which goes floating over hill and 
valley, singing: 
"Lo! here the gentle lark, weary of rest, 
From the moist cabinet mounts up on high, 
And awakes the morning, from whose silver breast 
The sun riseth in his majesty; 
Who does the world so gloriously behold, 
The cedar tops, and hills seem burnished gold." 
Volume ofter vokune might be filled with odes, poems 
idyls, madrigals, sonnets, etc., to the beautiful songster 
that soars on highest wing, but enough has been intro- 
duced in this article to acquaint the bird lovers with 
the musical, qualities of the sky-flying bird that soars 
up, up, to the very fount of light and truth. 
Alex. Starbuck. 
Cincinnati, Feb. 20. 
The Forest and Stream Publishing Co. are the largest 
DubHshers and importers f n America of Books on Out- 
door Sports. Their illustrated descriptive catalogue 
wUl ba seat free on request. 
The Quebec Elk. 
New York, Feb. 23.— Editor Forest and Stream: Re- 
ferring to the article in the last number of Forest and 
Stream, reporting the killing of an elk in the eastern 
Province of Quebec, I beg to submit the following, which, 
taken in connection with that occurrence, proves con 
clusively to my mind that there are still a limited num- 
ber of wapiti in eastern North America. 
In December, 1897, a man named Thotnpson, a camp 
boss for A. E. Alexander, of Campbellton, New Bruns- 
wick, claimed to have seen two elk in the mountains of 
Restigouche county, New Brunswick. They were in 
the portage, near Hall's hay sheds, about twenty miles 
" from Campbellton, and seven miles from Indian Lake, 
famous for trout. Thompson says that he first saw the 
tracks in the snow, then heard one of them whistle, and 
afterward succeeded in getting within a few rods of the 
elk before they made olT. He had no gun, or he could 
easily have shot them both. There can be no question 
about the animals being elk, as Thompson has lived in the 
far West, seen them in droves of hundreds, and there- 
fore knows them well. 
The locality where the two elk were met by Thompson 
is rather less than fifteen miles from the Bay des Chaleurs. 
which separates New Brunswick from Quebec, and there- 
fore but a short distance from the locality the elk was 
reported to have been shot. Noah Palmer. 
<! 
Sheldon, Vt., Feb. 25— Editor Forest and Stream: 
The information given in your editorial of this week— 
about an elk being killed recently near Matepedia, Que. — 
is most interesting, and to me a satisfactory solution of a 
puzzler that has disturbed me not a littk. 
Late in the fall of '97 I reported through your columns 
that an animal somewhat resembling a moose made a 
hurried passage through this country, coming from the 
south, and going in a northeast direction into the Province 
of Quebec. A fox hunting friend, who first saw it, be- 
lieved it to be a hybrid — a cross between a moose and our 
common deer. The writer followed it, or rather raced 
it over into Canada, and from the description given by 
the numerous persons who saw it, was unable to decide 
whether it was a moose or caribou. Its general color was 
described as "dunnish brown," and its gait and size re- 
sembled a moose. The track was shorter and broader, and 
its horns, though not large, were not palimated. It was 
without doubt an elk that had escaped from some game 
preserve south of here, and when at liberty headed north- 
ward, and succeeded in escaping the Vermont and habi- 
tant pot-hunters, to be gathered in later on, down near 
the Bay Chaleurs. We found where over a score of shots 
had been fired at it, apparently without effect— a lucky 
thing for the shooters. 
Quite a number of deer are wintering in this vicinity, 
which the warden.s are trying to protect. The number of 
hounds being lessened every few days, and their owners 
will be taught a lesson that will be beneficial. In the 
end gaiTie protection and order will prevail. It don't 
pay, boys, to run deer with hounds in Vermont. 
Stanstead. 
Elk Remains in Vermont. 
Milton, Vt., Feb. 23.— Editor Forest and Stream: In 
the last issue of your paper Ernest Seton Thompson asks 
for infonnation regarding the distribution of the elk 
Although elk probably have not formed a part of Ver- 
mont's fauna for scA-eral centuries, at one time they cer- 
tainly had an abiding place here, as is proven by remains 
that have been found near here, which were, I am con- 
fident, of that species. 
The remains consisted of a very fine pair of antlers 
measuring, I should say, 6ft. from the skull to the tips, 
with a .spread of some 6ft. These figures may not be quite 
correct, as I do not possess the exact measurements. A 
large bone, evidently a hip bone, and a portion of a broken 
antler were found with the pair. 
Where they were unearthed was in a small sheet of 
water, that could hardly be called a pond. The action of 
the water, no doubt, strongly impregnated with iron, had 
turned their color nearly black, and rendered them as 
hard as stone. The vicinity has been searched for more 
remains, but to no purpose, as these were all that were 
Kenewah. 
Breeding- Habits of Bears. 
In Mr. Brown's letter, published in Forest and Stream 
of Feb. 4, he £tsks for information as to the number of 
cubs bears have at a litter. I have twice found a she-bear 
with four cubs with her. In each case the inother was a 
brown, or cinnamon, bear, and in each case one cub was 
black, one dark brown, and the others lighter shades of 
brown, one being almost yellow. This was in Colorado. 
Several times I have seen three cubs in a litter, though 
It is true that the usual number is two, and I never saw 
but one black or cinnamon she-bear there with all her 
cubs the same color, the exception being a black she-bear 
with two cubs. I never saw but one grizzly with more 
than two cubs; she having three. As to the breeding 
sea.son and period of gestation, that is something I never 
could settle to my satisfaction. 
It_ is commonly supposed among trappers that bears 
breed just before holing up. I have held a post mortem 
on a dozen or fifteen she-bears during September and 
October, and could never find anv evidence that impregna- 
tion had taken place. 
At the same time, during the first two months or so 
the indications may be so slight that no one but a specialist 
could discover them. 
As to bears hibernating, I think that when a bear is in 
his natural state he makes his den where it gets com- 
pletely snowed under, and that he remains torpid for 
about three months, say December, January and February. 
That is, of course, here in the mountains. In the bad 
lands bears stay out nearly all winter. But I notice that 
tame bears here in the mountains are more or less lively 
all winter, and take some food. Wm. Wells 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesdi 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at f 
latest by Monday and as much earlier as practicable. 
