June 24, 1S99,] 
483 
The Seaboard Air Line.— IL 
The spring travel of 1898 has been very heavy. 
As I wrote you last autumn, I exchanged "om/ weider- 
sehen" with many little friends "en route," and purposed 
to be on hand with a greeting for them on their return 
this spring. I was fortunately able to keep my engage- 
ment, and have to chronicle their arrival in due course. 
The orioles came on by special train, being four days 
ahead of schedule, arriving on May 6 instead of lo, as is 
their custom. I was surprised to hear the first males 
sound their cheery, "Hello! Hello, Will! Back again! 
Back again !" so much ahead of time, but they received 
a hearttelt welcome nevertheless, j^ou may be sure. My 
other little friends were on time, and appeared en masse, 
making the air at once vibrant with melody. Our un- 
rivaled brown thrush as usual led the choir from the 
rustling treetops, while down beloAV in the cool twilight 
of spruce and hemlock the swamp robins fluted inimitable 
grace notes to the robin's noisy obligato. Scarlet tan- 
agers were in number, in marked contrast with the spring 
flights of past five years, as were the brown thrush, in- 
digo bird and golden-crowned accentor. Of the great 
horde of less prominent individuals, the number seemed 
to be about normal. I saw no less than seven of the shy 
little accentors or oven-birds; one pair are with us still, 
having nested, though I have not located their "tepee" 
as yet, I do not name all the friends that have returned 
this spring; it suffices to say that most of the familiar 
forms and voices were noted in average numbers. A few 
geese and ducks slipped by in silence, high overhead, as is 
their fashion at this season. 
As I have stated, I live at a way station on the line, but 
so attractive are its surroundings that most of the little 
travelers take a stop-over ticket when starting, and spend 
a few days with us before going on to keep their summer 
engagements further north. They have promised to look 
me up on their return next aijtumn. Should they not 
find me, I trust some one who Ioa'cs them as dearly as the 
writer will be here to wish them a bon voyage." 
WiLMOT TOWNSEND. 
Bav Ridge, N. Y. 
In a Michigan Camp. 
The Forest and Stream gospel of consideration for 
the wild creatures verily spreadeth apace. A j^oung man 
with me found a brood of young partridges (ruft'ed 
grouse) the other day in the course of his day of work. 
He counted fifteen, and thinks there were a number more. 
Being sharp-eyed and used to the ways of woods dwell- 
ers, he put his hand over one of the downy golden 
youngsters. He could feel it under his hand, but could 
not see it. Carefullj^ opening the rubbish and grass, he 
presently discovered the cunning young hider, and took it 
in his hand, where it very shortly became quite con- 
tented — indeed, seemed at home. When relating the cir- 
cumstances to me, I inquired if he let it go again. "Oh 
yes, sir!" was the answer; "I was a good deal more care- 
ful to let it go than I was to catch it." He was obliged 
to put it down, as it was in no haste to go of itself. 
Carefuly, he restored it to the place he took it from, near- 
by where the nest was hid, and where he could still hear 
the old ones calling. 
Yesterday the same man found five young rabbits, each 
with a little white streak in its forehead. He did not 
think it wise to bring them in, so left them where he 
found them; but they had already become tame, and had 
no dread of him, and those with him — six or eight others. 
After talking with me about them, he went out to-day 
and brought in four of them — ^the fifth being gone. Was 
the fifth destroyed? Where is the mother? Well, they 
have a new mother now ! They will sit in ojae's hand and 
eat clover blossoms, and suck a rag dipped in milk just as 
if they had always done it. We have a mite of a shepherd 
pup in camp. Guess we better bring them up together. 
J. B. Davis. 
Leelanau County, Mich. 
0H^^ md 0un, 
Exterminatory Peregrinations/' 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your issue of June lo I commented upon our new 
Florida game law, and spoke of the influences making 
for it, chief among them being the outrages perpetrated 
by game killers (of what I denominated "the Coquina 
type"), who have invaded our State and slaughtered our 
.game and wild life. What I wrote was thus intended to 
be explanatory of how we feel toward game butchers. 
That Mr. Shields (Coquina) happened to present him- 
•self to me as typical of the class under consideration was 
■due to what I may term the accident of his having left 
■on record in the book "Hunting in the Great West" a 
■shameless account of his exterminatory peregrinations 
here. I wrote of Mr. Shields precisely as any other per- 
son going by his record might have written of him ; and 
what I wrote was strictly from an impersonal standpoint. 
I had no more personal animus against Mr. Shields than 
I would have against an automatic shotgun shooting sixty 
times a minute and to all the thirty-two points of the com- 
pass at once. 
But now comes your correspondent, Mr. A. F. Rice, 
vpho, in your issue of June 17, professes to see in my com- 
munication the inspiration of an "ulterior motive." He 
thinks I must be one of those whom Mr. Shields "has 
correctly branded as game hogs." 
Bless your heart, how deliciously cliaracteristic that 
is. I quoted from Mr. Shields his own account of killing 
plumed birds from steamer decks, dropping water birds in 
the ponds as he passed by, shooting garfish "for 
pastime," putting out the eyes of alligators and 
torturing them in various and sundry ways, setting 
fire to live opossums — and I did this with the single pur- 
pose only to illustrate the influence which such disgusting 
practices have had upon our lawmakers — and I am there- 
fore, Mr. Rice sapiently concludes, one of those whom 
Mr. Shields has "branded as a game hog." To holler 
"game hog" is with these people "the whole thing," It 
does it all. I have often wondered in a mild way wliat 
formula Joshua used when he caused the sun to stand 
still, I know now. 
But Mr. Rice, if he will permit me to say it, is mis- 
taken, I have never been branded by Mr. Shields — not 
that I know of. I have pursued my way as a sportsman 
for lo these many years . without ever having been at- 
tacked, as so many others have been, by Mr. Shields be- 
cause my catch of fish or game did not tally with what 
he decreed was the proper thing. .1 have never received, 
as have others, from Mr. Shields impudent letters tak- 
ing me to task because my sporting ways were not his 
ways. In none of these several ways in which other 
folks are "stacked up against," as Mr. Rice puts it, have I 
come in contact with him. Suppo.se I had been assailed 
with his blackguard epithet of "game hog," what would 
that show? You know that out in the Yellowstone 
Park there is a Mud Geyser, which year in and year out 
spouts mud. Go there any day of any year, or any night, 
and you'll find it — bub, glug, glub — spouting mud. If you 
come too close you'll have to dodge the blamed thing. 
But even if it spatters you, you don't get mad at it. Be- 
cause j'ou are a man, and it is a natural curiosity. If you 
went to fighting a mud geyser, they'd say you were gone 
in your upper story, and probably put you in the lock- 
up of Mammoth Hot Springs. 
Mr, Geo. O. Shields is to me, as I have said already, 
simply a type of the visiting shooter who has scourged 
Florida with his devilish exterminating forays. He pre- 
sents himself to me as an impersonal phenomenon. His 
devastating crusade hei-e was, to me, a manifestation of a 
phase of depraved human nature, rather than the ex- 
ploits of an individual. I know him only as he describes 
himself and his deeds in his book. I go by his record as 
he himself made it and has recorded it and is to-day 
proclaiming it wherever he can get a dollar in trade for 
it. Being thus free and absolutely independent of any 
honest imputation of wrong motive, I claim my right and 
exercise it to speak the word which it seems to me is 
right to speak. If the language in my letter printed in 
your issue of June 10 was in any particular intemperate, I 
am sincerely sorry for it ; but I still am persuaded that I 
did not express a half of the abhorrence of Coquina's 
cruelties in Florida, and of the disgust at the coarseness 
of Mr. Shields' recital, which any man of average sensi- 
bility must feel who reads his book. 
Mr. Rice insinuates that my quotations were not fair. 
I quoted literally. Mr. Rice thinks I should have given 
the context of such sentences as these: 
"Capt. Schoonmaker informed us that we would find 
plenty of game from this point up, so we brought out our 
guns— Dr. W. got his shotgun and I my rifle. We took 
u.p our positions on the quarterdeck ready for business." 
"Then there was sport ! He gave us such a gymnastic 
exhibition as only a wounded 'gator can give. He first 
tried to stand on his head, then he tried to stand on his 
tail. Then apparently tried to turn himself wrong side 
out. Finally, recovering temporarily from the shock, he 
reached the water, and was lost to our sight forevesr." 
"During the remainder of the day we had fine sport 
shooting blue herons, white egrets, blue and white ibises, 
ducks, cormorants, coot, etc., but owing to the motion 
of the boat (she made about fifteen miles an hour) I 
made rather a poor score with the rifle." 
(Mr. Rice avers that these birds shot from a passing 
steamer and left to rot were killed for "museum" pur- 
poses. L confess I hadn't thought of that. Mr. Shields 
perhaps meant to make a "museum" of all outdoors.) 
"I was thirsting for the blood of a 'gator." 
"We saw large numbers of garfish sporting in the sun- 
light. We shot a few of them merely for pastime" 
(More "museum.") 
"The smoke had scarcely cleared away after my last 
shot, when a third 'gator looked up near us, and in- 
stantly caught a right fielder in his left eye, that turned 
him over.' 
"I went back, and there, sure enough, was an old fellow 
swimming along down the creek as unconcernedly as 
though he had never heard the report of a gun in his 
life. I waited until he came within about soft, of 
me, and then gave him one in the leeward optic. He 
turned two or three somersaults, and stopped on his 
back with one forefoot sticking out of the water We 
left hun there as a warning to his kind." (What "mu- 
seum is he in?) 
"We put a bunch of dry moss in the opening and set 
hre to It. In a few minutes a 'possum came tumbling out 
through the fire, and old Rover, who stood there waiting 
for him, made short work of him." (Old Rover, too, ap- 
pears to havi; been working the "museum" racket.) 
"While we were at supper, a large 'gator raised his 
head m the middle of the river opposite our tent. I sent 
a message from 'old reliable,' and in an instant more he 
was lashing the water into a foam, minus an eye." (Any 
'museums" up your way, Mr. Forest and Stream, 
stocked with one-eyed alligators?) 
"For instance, there are cranes, pelicans, cormorants, 
water turkeys, alligators, etc., offering shots at all ranges, 
and affording such fine opportunities for practice that 
anyone is justifiable in improving these opportunities when 
not in localities where game is to be found." (Let your 
"museum" instinct have full play, as it were.) 
Could a ton of context relieve these passages of their 
coarseness or prevent them from giving stamp and char- 
acter to the book ? 
Mr. Rice says that in those days we all did such things. 
I envy Mr. Rice his manifest enjoyment of the blessing 
of youth with its credulousness and optimism ; but I want 
to tell him that he has turned his back upon the pole 
star of truth when he entertains the queer notion that we 
were all like the Florida butcher in those days. Why, 
there were plenty of sportsmen then. We sportsmen were 
not all born yesterday. Sportsmanship did not come into 
the world when Coquina established the L. A. S. as a 
business enterprise to advertise himself. But really it is 
hardly worth while to consider the implication made by 
Mr. Rice that in the days when Coquina, shooting from 
steamer's deck, was IdlHng plumed birds to rot on thf. 
shore, the practice was one mdulged in or approved by 
sportsmen. There have always been among shooters in- 
dividuals who were prompted by thirst for alligator 
blood, and lust for killing everything within sight, but we 
did not in those days any more than we do now call them 
sportsmen. 
Mr. Rice tells us that these Florida atrocities were 
perpetrated when Mr. Shields was a youth. I am sure I 
don't know just where Mr. Rice draws his mark be- 
tween youth and adult manhood, but come, now, it does 
seem to me that when one has arrived at an age where 
he has assumed matrimonial obligations he ought to be 
expected to have fixed principles about the destruction of 
innocent creatures on the water or in the air. 
Mr. Rice intimates that the author of the book has re- 
pudiated its teachings. If the record showed this to be 
the fact I would be the first to welcome it, but on the 
contrary the circumstances oppose any such conclusion. 
In 1889 (which was not so very long ago) Mr, Shields 
tells us that this book, "Hunting in the Great West," had 
met such a Idnd reception that he was encouraged to print 
his "Cruisings in the Cascades" (with "museum" ma- 
terial of the same sort). The edition of "Hunting in the 
Great West," from which I have quoted, was printed in 
1890 — not so long ago. The fact is, moreover, that the 
book is now, to-day, advertised and sold by Mr. Shields. 
So that now, at the present time, Mr. Shields is making 
public boast of how he killed our plume birds to rot on the 
river banks, and of how he mutilated our wild creatures 
for fun. 
How this fits in with Mr. Rice's theory of a humble and 
contrite heart, for the life of me I cannot see. It appears 
to my feeble understanding that one evidence of con- 
trition and regeneration would be the suppression of this 
roster of one-eyed alligators whose leeward optics had 
been bored out by Mr. Shields, this catalogue of the 
plume birds of North America killed from steamer decks 
by Coquina here in Florida. It is a book which, it seems 
to me, any right-thinking man would call in and suppress, 
instead of trying to find new readers for the braggart self- 
revelation contained in it. If I were a reformed game 
butcher with this "Hunting in the Great West" in my 
record, I'd let a contract for sackcloth and ashes, and 
I'd bury the book so deep that you'd have to sink a shaft 
deeper than our deepest St. Augustine artesian well to 
resurrect it. For let me assure you of one thing, such a 
book is an eye-opener as to the .sportsmanship record of 
the man who wrote it. 
And just here a word, to revert to Mr. Rice's ingenuous 
way of concluding the whole matter by the cheerful theory 
that I have been "stacked up against as a game hog." I 
will say confidentially to Mr. Rice that I don't take much 
stock in the noisy reiteration of that objurgation by his 
president. It sounds to me too much like the strident 
shouting of the convert who is not quite certain of liis 
own conversion, nor any the more dead-sure that others 
are wholly convinced of it, but means to persuade them 
by lustily damning the sinners. In fact, to my mind, this 
besmearing of other folks with opprobious epithets, dis- 
charged from the safe vantage of his official position, is 
all of a piece with shooting birds from a steamer's deck; 
that is to say in spirit the two are identical. It does not 
appear to me to indicate a changed heart, but only to be a 
changed manifestation of the same old heart. 
And I don't see how, by holding in one hand a rnega- 
phone through which to shout "game hog," and selling 
from the other to "who'll have another one?" the "Hunt- 
ing in the Great West" with its practical lessons in 
cruelty, the president of the L. A. S. can be expected to 
restore the plumed birds to our rivers, or to our one-eyed 
alligators the "leeward optics" he and his kind have shot 
out. I don't suppose he himself expects to. I do suppose 
that he will sell his book so long as he can get a dollar 
for it, and holler "game hog" so long as that brings in 
the dollars too. 
Just one more word, and that of apology for the space I 
have unwittingly consumed. My pen has inadvertently 
been led on by Mr. Rice, and I have written more than I 
have intendecl. though on a theme by no means ex- 
hausted. But I am not concerned with Coquina. only with 
Florida. If in what I wrote the other day I showed what 
nature of man this is who is befouling others so lavishly 
with his blackguard epithets, let that be counted as in- 
cidental. My main purpose has been to put on record the 
attitude we have taken in Florida toward game butchers. 
We propose to have no more of them. I want to impress 
on any youth who may purchase of Coquina his book in 
this year of grace, 1899, and may be stimulated by it to 
deeds of blood which he thinks to perpetrate in Florida, 
the solemn truth that he would find himself here most 
woefully disappointed, and it would be better for him to 
stay away. Didymus. 
St. AuGUSTlKE, Florida, June IT. 
Notes from Gett-ysbtttgf. 
Gettysburg, Pa., June 10. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
A covey of partridges were seen inside the town limits 
one day last week. Thirteen in number — two old birds 
and eleven chicks. 
Thomas H. Bowen, of Mackall, Calvert county, Md., 
has caught carrier pigeon "N. A. 43912," and holds till 
owner can be communicated with. 
N. S. Wautz, a farmer living near Pleasant Valley, 
Maryland, has in his possession a magnificent eagle which 
measures 6ft. 6in. from tip to tip of wings. It was cap- 
tured by his son under singular circumstances. The 
youth noticed a flock of crows in the orchard which were 
making an attack on the eagle, which was sitting on a 
limb of an apple tree, and he concluded to take a hand in 
the battle. Picking up a stone he hui-led it at the kingly 
bird, striking it on the head, which rendered it helpless. 
Young Wautz at once seized the eagle and carried it to 
the house, where it soon revived and is now caged. 
Bass season is now in, but no reports from fishermen 
have arrived yet. F. M. B. 
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 eartier as practicable. 
