see 
FOREST ' AND STREAM. 
fMAY 13, 1899. 
credulous people believe it to be identical with the Gyas- 
tkutus, but we leave that for the folk lore. In evidence of 
its presence in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, 
the Charlotte Observer made mention last February that 
some kind of large animal, something like the santer, 
which played such havoc with the dogs in Gredell county 
some years ago, "was killing dogs on Goose Creek, in 
the adioining county of Union. And it adds: ''The ani- 
mal in question is certainly not the santer, for we have 
information from .Mebane, Alamance county, of the ap- 
pearance of this fright-inspiring animal there. 'Its color,' 
says our correspondence, 'is dark, its body is long and 
slim; so, also, is its tail; its ears are sharp; feet long and 
armed with great claws. It fears not the face of man, 
but comes boldlj'^ into his very yard, fights the dogs, pur- 
sues them even under the house, slays puppy-dogs, de- 
vours poultry, eats calves alive and gnaws the old cow's 
hoofs off. Horrible tracks mark the earth, and the night 
reverberates with its cry. Traps avail nothing. Cunning 
hunters come from near and far, but he smiles at their 
attempts to hunt him down. Benighted pedestrians flee 
for their lives. In short, terror reigns.' " 
Both animals are imquestionably unpleasant living facts. 
Possibly our correspondents in the old North State can 
identify the last named as surely as we think we have done 
the santer. Charles Hallock. 
did not like to touch the things, it looked "mighty pizen- 
ous." Another of my friends informed me lately that he 
supposed armadillos belonged to the turtle "species" and 
laid eggs. - • * • 
I have never yet found any young ones, but a neighbor 
of mine who possesses many"flocks of sheep tells me that 
his Mexican herders have twice found litters of four young 
and once a litter of five. The Mexicans eat all the arma- 
dillos they can catch, and they catch a great many. They 
say they are better than chickens. They also deSci-ibe the 
young ones as being of a bright blue color. They some- 
times find both parents with the young. 
PURBECK. 
Krrrville, Tex.^.s. 
them. Cut the slices rather thin — about l^m. — peel off 
the outside skin, rub them over with flour, and fry in 
sweet lard or butter to a light brown on both sides. 
Sprinkle the slices with salt or dip them in salt water 
before rubbing on the flour. Cooked in this way the 
puff-ball has a rich, nutty flavor that I have never found 
in any other mushroom. Arthur M. Davis, 
Strange Invaders. 
Within the last few years there has been quite an in- 
vasion of armadillos in this part of Texas. They seem to 
have suddenly taken a notion to extend their range from 
the prickly pear country in the southwestern part of the 
State. Until a few years ago they were quite an unknown 
animal here, but early in the nineties we began to hear of 
them occasionally, and in 1892 our hounds introduced us 
to one on the head of the Sabinal River. In '95 we 
caught one at the ranch, and since then they have in- 
creased so fast that they are now as common as opos- 
sums, if not more so. 
Although they Avear a heavy coat of mail, armadillos 
are not well provided with weapons of offense. They 
have no teeth worth mentioning, and their stout claws 
are better adapted for agricultural than military purposes. 
In disposition they are peaceable and confiding, and if 
they make an occasional raid on a melon or tomato 
patch, they more than compensate for any damage they 
do in a garden by the constant war they carry on against 
grubs and insects of all kinds. Even as the skunk places 
so much reliance on his defensive battery that he will 
scarcely take the trouble to get out of one's way, so does 
the armadillo rely upon its coat of mail, and I have known 
one, after being stopped and rolled over by a dog, to 
run a few yards to the next little thicket and calmly re- 
sume its occupation of rooting about among the fallen 
leaves. Their armor is a very efficient protection, and 
dogs as a rule don't hurt them much, as their teeth slip 
off the armed plates, and they can't get a good hold. 
Some dogs, however, learn to turn them over and get at 
the soft spots, in which case they kill them easily. 
When deer hunting last November we ttsed often to 
find them late in an evening, rooting and scratching 
about among the rocks, and dead leaves, and as I wanted 
to find out what they lived on I slipped up to within a 
few feet of one one day and watched him for half an 
hour or more. He was evidently after ants or their 
pupse, probably both. He would turn over the little rocks 
with his nose and root and scratch around the edges of 
the larger ones, eating something nearly all the time. I 
crawled up to within lyd of him, and still he did not find 
me out until he ran his nose against one of my shoes. 
He seemed to be much impressed by the shape or per- 
haps the size of my feet, for the sat up like a rabbit to 
see what the rest of me was like, and peered up at my 
face in a most ludicrous manner. This was a little too 
much for me, so I planted the toe of one shoe about 
where the third button of his waistcoat would have been 
had he worn such a garment, and he left the neighbor- 
hood in a most ridiculous kind of canter, jumping high 
but short, like a donkey, with his long, heavy tail flying 
up over his back every time he hit the ground. I gave 
him a few seconds to get over his fright, and found him 
again about 30yds. off, scratching about in another thick- 
et as if nothing unusual had happened to him. 
This is a rough limestone country, broken up into 
brush-covered hills and steep, rocky canons, and abound- 
ing in caves of various sizes. The smaller caves just suit 
the armadillos, and they drag quantities of dead leaves 
into them and make snug nests for themselves. They 
don't like cold weather, and on frosty mornings we have 
often found them in shallow holes that they have dug 
for themselves, dragging in leaves after them and stop- 
ping up the mouth of the hole from within. 
Armadillos have tremendous muscular power, and can 
turn over quite large rocks in their search for grubs. It . 
is almost impossible to pull one out of a hole by the tail, 
and as soon as they realize that anything is after them, 
they try to escape by digging further in. When our 
dogs bay at a cave we always know when an armadillo is. 
there by the noise he makes when digging. Two or three 
years ago, before the armadillos were as plentiful as they,;, 
are now, we kept one for a week or two in an old box j. 
with a few slabs nailed over the top of it. It eat all the , 
bread and milk it could get and was always perfectly ■ 
tame and contented. One cold morning it seemed to-be 
unhappy about something or other, and thinking that 
probably it was not warm enough, one of the boys threw 
a couple of flannel shirts over the top of the box.. The .,, 
next morning we found that our patient had pulled the. 
garments through between the slats into his box and cut 
them up to suit himself, and although they were doubt- 
less still very useful from an armadillo's point .of view, , 
they were no longer desirable as articles of human ap- 
parel. 
When these animals first made their appearance in thi.s 
part of the world they were quite unknown to ..most of ■', 
our neighbors, and they are still looked upon • wiA ; 9 :■ ■ 
good deal of suspicion. One ©f a party of deer hunters \ 
returning to camp after an unsuccessful morning's h'lint: ij 
met an armadillo and promptly blew a hole through i it. 
The report of his rifle was heard in camp, and when he> - 
was asked what he had killed he owned that he did not 
know, but he "allowed" it was a rhinoceros; when asked 
.why be did not bring it into camp with him, he said he 
The Wild Pigeons, 
]\IiLLEROOK, Dutchess County, ' N. Y. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: I notice in your issue of April 29 an article 
written by Mr. A. O. Meersch that the wild pigeon had 
made its appearance again in Dutchess county in 1895. 
Having been a regular reader of Forest and Stream 
since 1887, I have noted with interest all reports of the 
wild pigeon, as in fact all game birds. Reports fre- 
quently come that small flocks have been seen in Michi- 
gan or Wisconsin; but that they had appeared in such 
numbers in Dutchess county as Mr. Meersch describes 
I was greatly surprised to hear. I commenced to hunt 
in 1884, when fourteen years of age, and have hunted 
a great deal .since that time over central Dutchess, and 
have not known of one wild pigeon being seen or killed 
in that time. In fact, I never saw a wild pigeon in my 
life. I have made several inquiries of the old hunters 
about here, and I find that the last wild pigeons seen or 
killed in this locality was about eighteen ye^^rs ago. I 
have often had men tell me there was a flock of pigeons 
in such an oat or buckwheat stubble, but on going there 
I would find nothing but doves. I cannot help tliinking 
that Mr. Meersch must be mistaken about the pigeons 
appearing in such mimbers, so late as 1895, and about 
so many being killed in this county. I will await with 
interest the reports of other readers of Forest and 
Stream in Dutchess county, as to when they saw or killed 
their last wild pigeon. Isaac Tallman. 
Ann Arbor, Mich., March 30. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I read in Forest and Stream for April 29 
about wild pigeons as follows: 
"Four years ago there was a remarkable flight of wild 
pigeons there, a flight like those of forty or fifty years 
ago. Hundreds were killed, and the event created no 
little interest." 
In 1878 I saw a wreck of what had been a pigeon roost, 
and the piles of unused crates that were left by the 
butchers. In 1883 I had my last fleeting glimpse of a 
few of these birds in their arrowy flight from the reach 
of man. In view of the above quotation I am moved to 
make a few inquiries. Is there no good thing but a 
dead thing? Must every living creature be sacrificed 
to man's impulse to kill? Does nature aft'ord no op- 
portunity that can satisfy us completely, except the op- 
portunity to kill something? Is the taking of life the only 
royal pastime? Let a flight of wild pigeons appear, and 
we seem to have an answer. 
Witness also Michigan's spring duck killing. 
J. B. Davis, 
Florida Bird Flights. 
DeLANd, Fla., May i.— If may interest some of your 
readers to learn that migrations of birds bound north 
passed over this section at least five weeks later than usual, 
few of them previous to April i, and that scarcely any 
of these transients appeared to stop with us. I heard 
the first chuck-will's widow this season the first week in 
April, though I had heard the song of that bird about 
.Auburndale in other years as early as the last week in 
February. The same difference of date was noticed in 
the first "bob-white" song of the local quail. The spring 
weather so far has been remarkably cool for this time in 
Florida. 
DeLand is nearly four miles from the St. John s and is 
therefore slightly off the course of bird, migration. Both 
this river and the Kissimmee are popular routes for the 
traveling flights. We noticed while out in camp near the 
Kissimmee on the night of Feb. 14, 1896, that large 
flocks of birds were passing overhead on their way North, 
and when we arrived at Palatka on Oct. 3, 1896, that as 
many of them were on their way South. But the latter 
flight in 1898 was not perceptible at De Land until about 
the first week in November. H. R. Steiger. 
Poff Balls. 
Cartersburg, Ind., April 29.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I notice in your issue of April 28 an inquiry 
from N. D. E. as to the edibleness of the common "puff= 
ball," and his apparent wonder that it should be used as 
food. The puff-ball, as described by him, while prob- 
ably not equal to the cultivated mushroom in flavor, is 
one of the most delicious morsels that grows. It is 
claimed there- is but one vai^iety of the puff-ball, but in 
gathering them for my own fable I have found some that 
differed from the ordinary kind as described by N. D. E. 
in both color and structure;, but while these may have 
been edible, I have considered it safest to confine myself 
to the one variety that I know is good. 
To have it at its best, the puff-ball should be gathered 
before it is twenty-four hours old, as it is of very rapid 
growth and soon ripens after it attains its maturity. The 
flesh should.be cri.sp and solid, pure white and free from 
yellowish streaks, which are caused by a small white 
worm that sometimes infests it from the root upward. It 
does not- matter how large , the ball is, so long as the 
jlesh is solid, and not soft arid , doughy. I have gathered 
them measuring 4 and 5in..^;in diameter, and they were 
,just as good as those not larger .than a. hen's egg. 
,1. do not consi"der it. njep^sary^ to .soak them in salt 
water, but it . does not iii.jure^j&,erh, except to take away 
s^omewhat the slight woo.dy., flavor -that all wild mush- 
rooms have. I have eaten ttiem, ten mintites after gath- 
ering them. H I * 
I have cooked them in but one wsy, and that is to fry 
Quack and Quok. 
The Forest and Stream makes me say the "quack" 
of the night heron. I wrote "quak," but should rather 
have written "quok," which is the nearest I can write 
his note. Quack, as we all know, is the note of the 
duck, and brings up memories of the days when two boys 
stood with longing eyes in the Hatfield meadows on the 
banks of the Connecticut watching the black ducks far 
out on the water beyond gunshot as they quacked and 
splashed and dove. Of the days when we lay behind the 
blind on the shore of the grist mill pond, wishing they 
would light, but the3' wouldn't. When we crept along the 
banks of the mill river only to see them put themselves 
out of gunshot before we could get near them. All 
this was before we learned wing shooting. And here I 
have the whirr of from two to a thousand wings as 
the companies of wildfowl pass northward or circle 
and curve about some prairie pond. 
But the quok of the heron is of the night time, and 
brings up memories of the lonely watching for muskrats 
or fished for the grinning bullhead or squirming eel, and 
of the evenings when at the bidding of a certain sweet 
tj-ir] friend long since gone over to the silent majority, 
at the time when, on account of the pressure of farm 
work, the day time was, according to those having au- 
thority, too precious for such "nonsense," I would launch 
the little boat and go down to the silent, lonely 'pond 
where the pond lilies grew and gather these treasures for 
her especial benefit. Pine Tree. 
Weight of the Raccoon. 
Some one sends us a copy of theEllenville, N. Y., Press 
of May 4, which has this item bearing on the raccoon 
weight question : Harvey Lake went to Brownville Sun- 
day night to call on his best friend, and about 12 o'clock 
they heard the faithful dog, Jack, barking up a tree near 
the house on the bank of the Vernooy Creek. He called 
Arthur McComb out of bed, and the young men started to 
see what the dog had found, and great was their surprise 
to see a coon of enormous size in the top of a small tree. 
They both took hold and shook him out, and when he 
struck the groimd the dog grabbed him in the neck, and a 
lively fight took place. But the coon was most too big for 
the dog to conquer alone, so Arthur grabbed one hind leg 
while Harvey linched him by the tail, and all four rolled 
down the bank into the stream. "Hang to it, Arthur; stick 
to him, Jack," said Harvey, "and I'll hang on to his tail 
until it comes off." After a good tussle in the water the 
boys secured their prize and also a good soaking. "Never 
mind," said Arthur, "we kept the coon." He was a fine 
fellow, and weighed 47lbs. 
The Linnaean Society. 
A regular meeting of the society will be held in the 
American Museum of Natural History on Tuesday even- 
ing, May 23, at 8 o'clock. The paper will be by Jonathan 
Dwight, Jr. "Remarks upon some of the April Birds of 
Georgia." By members. Exhibition of specimens, with 
discussion of distribution, habits, etc., of the species of 
the genus Seiimcs. Walter W. Granger, Sec'y. 
The Rock Springs Elk Meat* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your issue of April 8 I see that Mr, A. M. Gilder- 
sleeve, of Rock Springs, adm.its that the company used 
a few elk at their camps during the open season last fall. 
As several of the local papers of this State have here- 
tofore denied that the lumber company used any game 
and have applied to those of us that are trying to pro- 
tect the game such epithets as "dudes," "tenderfeet," 
"outlaws worse than the Bannock Indians," and such like 
endearments, it is now a question of personal veracity be- 
tween myself and Mr. Gildersleeve. This is especially the 
case now that Mr. Nelson, State game warden, says that 
Mr. Gildersleeve, Mr. Kendall and Mr. Biscom all denied 
to him any knowledge of the killing of game for the 
camps. Mr. Nelson says that my chargese against the 
company are dictated by jealousy. 
It is pexfectly true that I run a camp for the accommo- 
dation of Eastern sportsmen. Consequently, if the Rock 
Springs Lumber Company kill off all the game I will 
have to go out of business. Therefore I will confess that 
1 am fighting to save the game from interested motives. 
I will now lay before the readers of Forest and 
Stream the following facts, any of which I stand pre- 
pared to prove in court, leaving it to them to decide how 
far Mr. Gildersleeve's claim that he and Mr. Kendall are 
in favor of game protection is warranted by the truth. 
The Rock Springs Lumber Company started their 
camps on Green River in September, 1878, and up until 
about the middle of December their entire crew of about 
200 men was supplied with game. 
Soon after the camps were established Mr. Live Sim- 
mons, a cattle man living on Green River, below the 
camps, went to Geo. Biscom, manager far the lumber 
company, and asked for a contract to supply the camps 
with beef. Mr. Biscom told Mr. Simmons that he did ■ 
not want any beef^ as . lie could buy elk meat much 
cheaper. - ■ 
By October the company had from three to five hunters 
at work killing game, mainly cow and calf elk, for the 
camp. This killing was' done openly and the game was 
taken into the comp in btpad daylight. 
, Several sled loads \yere hauled down Green River by 
my camp and delivered'at'the log camps. 
' Along in the fore part of December several- of ^the 
hunters for the company had' established canips on <JtQW 
