ApRft ^t, igob.] 
FOREST AND - STREAM. 
808 
at the same time fenced in should be provided for that 
purpose. The OM^er of this herd is willing to bear all the 
expense of this experiment and asks no Government aid. 
J-Ie cannot turn these animals out on the open range 
witiiout danger of their entire loss. 
In New Mexico the buffalo finds his natural home, both 
summer and winter. There remain vast areas of unoccu- 
pied public lands where the^ buffalo formerly roamed and 
bred with mvich fruitfulness. Out of the 600.000,000 
acres remaining of the public lands, it is proposed by 
this bill to set apart a tract of 20,000 acres; not free of 
charge, as the sheep and cattle men now use that land, but 
subject to a nominal rental of one cent an acre, and also 
two buffalo in kind which are to be delivered to the 
Government each year, for the use of the public parks. 
Owing to a misunderstanding of the boundaries, the 
original bill provided for an unnecessarily large area, and 
the hoFtiliti'^ of the sheep and cattle men was at once 
aroused The committee, in reporting back this bill, have 
cut the amoimt down to such dimensions that we believe 
the bill would meet the approval of even these interested 
parties. The addition of this herd of buffalo, instead of 
being an injury to New Mexico, will be of positive ad- 
vantage, because it adds an additional industry, or, rather, 
restores one which has been destroj'^ed. The lease is a 
temporarjf one, and runs but for twenty years. If it is 
found that the animals sufficiently increase under this ar- 
rangement the lease could be renewed, otherwise there 
would be no harm done in terminating it. 
George Bird Grinnell, in 1892, estimated the Yellow- 
stone buffalo at 400, and reported that they were increas- 
ing. The writer of this report visited the Yellowstone 
last summer, and from the best information he could get 
there were not to exceed twenty-three still alive. At $10 
a head, the 10,000,000 of these animals that existed- only a 
few years ago, would be worth $100,000,000. 
In 1873 Congress passed a law to protect the buffalo, but 
the President of the United States failed to sign it, and it 
did not become a law. The failure to sign- this bill might 
be called another "crime of '73." Action then would 
have been in time. The failure to act now in this matter 
will be fatal. We believe that the Government should 
make this experiment. It ought to be made, even if it had 
to be made entirely at public expense, but under the 
plan proposed by this bill the Government will not ex- 
pend a single dollar. The land, to be used for the purpose 
is public land. It belongs to the people. The whole 
people of the United States are concerned in saving our 
nation from the reproach of allowing the entire extinction 
of the American bison. Our children's children would 
curse us, and they ought to, if we do not prevent this 
reproach on the American from being consummated. 
There is another important feature connected with this ^ 
experiment. Domestic cows can be placed on this range 
and crossed Avith the buffalo bulls. This is no longer an 
experiment. The product of tliis cross is an animal with a 
coat heavy enough to resist the severest Western winter 
storm: This, however, is only an incident to the real 
purpose of the plan, as there would be no attempt made to 
breed from the female buffalo anything but the pure- 
blooded bison. The addition would be made by breeding 
domestic cows, and so the production of the pure bloods 
would not be in this manner decreased. 
Your committee earnestly recommend the prompt 
passage of the substisute for the bill. 
Remembered llneidents. 
International Ornithological Congress 
The Third International Ornithological Congress will 
be held during the Exposition at Paris, June 26 to 30, 
1900. Invitations have been sent out to ornithologists 
throughout the world urging them to be present and to 
take part in this congress, which will undoubtedly bind 
together by closer ties the naturalists of all lands, as did 
the two previous meetings of this nature, the first held 
at Vienna in 1884 and the second at Budapest in 1891. 
The honorary president of the Committee on Organiza- 
tion is Prof. A. Milne Edwards, Director of the French 
Natural History Museum. A Comite de Patronage has 
been appointed, consisting of ornithologists from all coun- 
tries, amons whom of the Americans are to be named Dr. 
G. Elliot, Mr. Robt. Ridgway, President of the A. O. U., 
of the Field Columbian Museum, of Chicago ; Dr. C. Hart 
Merriam, of the Biological Survey; Mr. Harry C. Ober- 
holser, and others. 
The congress will include general sessions, sessions of 
the sections, and excursions to various scientific establish- 
ments. The five sections into which the congress vi^ill 
be divided are these: (i) Systematic ornithology, in- 
cluding anatomy and paleontology. (2) Geographical 
distribution, including migrations. (3) Biology, including 
nidification and oology. (4) Economic ornithology, in- 
cluding the protection of birds, bird culture, acclimatiza- 
tion, (s) Organization of a permanent International 
Ornithoiogical Committee. 
While French will, of course,- be the language of the 
■congress, and its publications will be in this language, 
nevertheless papers may be read and remarks made in 
English, German or Italian. 
The general programme of the congress will be as 
follows : _ • _ ' 
First section: Systematic ornithology, classification, 
description of new genera and species, nomenclature. 
Anatomy and embryologj' of birds. Paleontology; classi- 
fication, description of new genera and species, ancient 
faunas, the relation of extinct to living species. 
Second section: Geographical distribution of birds. 
Existing faunas species which have become extinct in 
historic times. Migrations. Accidental occurrences..- Ap- 
pearance of rare species in certain countries. 
Third section : Biology, habits, nidification, oology. 
Fourth section: Economic ornithologj' ; protection of 
species useful to agriculture; -destruction of noxious 
speci?s. Shooting for sport. Accliiriatization. Bird cul- 
'ture. _ _ - - ' " ~ 
Fifth section: Organization of an International 
Ornithological Committee and the defining its duties; elec- 
tion of new members. 
The FonEST AND Stream ib put to press cacli week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach u» at the 
Uteit % Hos^Di^ taSi u nsuch earlier as practicable. 
Vagaty of a"Gun. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
To a thoughtless boy, brimful of the hunting instinct, 
everything wild is game. So I must have a gun. For 
a dollar I got a second-hand ancient^looking single muzzle- 
loader, very well made and in good order. I regarded it 
with a sort of veneration, and a ifiixture of melancholia 
that, perhaps, cannot be explained, and which made me 
think of old deserted garrets, dihgy" basements and cellars 
and log huts, and all such. weird places as only a Dickens 
could portray. Well, this gun was as mysterious to me, 
as it was liable to call up unholy emotions, if not force 
blasphemous words. Had I believed in witchcraft, as 
some do, I might have supposed it the object and I the 
victim of a "spell." I had shot gtins before, none of 
which had surprised me as this one did. 
I used to delight in shooting crows. One day, finding 
a dead horse by the roadside, my boon companion and I 
had it dragged into a field near a stone wall, behind which 
we built a bough house. A hole was made by removing 
the stones of the wall, through which to poke the gun. 
What sport we would have ! But, alas, my tricky gun ! 
Sometimes but the least portion of the powder exploded, 
maldng a noise but a little louder than the report of the 
cap. The charge would be pushed out with just force 
enough to drop the shot a few feet from the muzzle of 
the gun. I don't remember that I got a single crow off 
that bait. 
A Bold Robbet Cro-w. 
The house in which I lived, just on the outskirts' of the 
village of Highland, N. Y., had around it some tall locust 
trees. One day, while standing by one of the trees, which 
was about 15 feet from the house, I heard a rustle in the 
top branches, then cries of alarm and distress. At that- 
raoment a crow issued with a young robin in its mouth 
and flew rapidly away, the baby bird screaming with all 
its might -and the mother in hot and noisy pursuit; but 
she soon gave up the chase. I must declare that my 
blood warmed a little at the sight. 
■Where a Woodcock Was Foa.Qd, 
One , day in the Shadica, N, Y., woods I shot a wood- 
cock, but neither my eyes nor the dog's nose were keen 
enough to discover the whereabouts of that dead bird. I 
was puzzled. Yet so sure was I that I had killed my 
game that I was more than loath to give up the search. 
I then called to mind that I had shot liim after he had 
risen above the small trees, and reasoned that he might 
have., found a lodgment, so I jarred a tree. Sure enough, 
dowfl! he fell at my feet, plump. N. D. E. 
Big Game in Trouble. 
Boston, April 14. — That a deer is wonderfully tenacious 
of life every hunter is well aware. Not only can they 
stand against the gun, unless well aimed, but they can 
endure the rigors of nature in a remarkable manner. The 
other day the ice was clearing from the Kennebee River 
in Maine. At Augusta the river was full of floating ice 
and debris. Commissioners Carleton and Stanley, with 
P. O. Vickery, were hi a club house that commands a 
good view of the dam and the rapids below. They were 
watching the ice and logs go over the dam. All at once a 
live deer appeared on a cake, rapidly drifting down to the 
dam and the roaring rapids below. Breathlessly they 
watched a deer going to destruction in a manner that 
they were powerless to hinder, though it is many a deer 
they have saved from the forces of those who would 
slaughter them illegally. Doubtless the poor fellow had 
attempted to cross on the ice somewhere above and been 
carried down stream as the ice started. With a cringe 
and a backward brace, the deer seemed to prepare for the 
final plunge of 20 feet over the dam. The big cake 
of ice tipped, tottered and plunged. The men watching 
expected to see the deer's dead body coming out of the 
undertow several rods below, but they were mistaken. 
Quickly his head appeared above the seething waters, and 
going down with the current a few rods, he struck out for 
the shore, which he soon reached. He climbed up the 
bank, shook himself, bounded over a fence, trotted across 
the fields and disappeared in the woods. Whether this 
story has been told over again, and below the dam at 
Augusta, it is not certain, but a Maine down-river paper 
has it that a handsome deer was seen one day last week 
on a cake of ice — below Augusta — and floating oiit to sea. 
Boatmen tried to reach him, but did not succeed. It is 
hardly probable that the deer came back, after going over 
the dam, and again tried a cake of ice for a ride. 
In line with the great suffering of the big game in 
Maine, from the terribly deep snows, comes the story of a 
moose, overtaken by a railway train on the Portland & 
Rumford Falls line, a short distance above Houghton's. 
Unable or unwilling to attempt to mount the high hanks 
of snow on either side of the road, the animal trotted down 
ahead of the train till it came to a culvert, where it must 
jump or be run over. It leaped down into the bed of 
the stream, where it again had sure footing and but little 
snow. The snow was fully 5 feet deep on either side of 
the stream. The moose, doubtless somewhat injured by 
its jump, made but little progress up the stream. The 
train was brought to a stop and all hands went up the 
stream to view it. Word was carried down to Rurnford 
Falls, and an extra engine with a nui-jiber of people, some 
armed with cameras, went up to see it Through the 
courtesy of Mr, J. E. Stephens I am able to give the 
Forest. AKD Stream a picture of the moose, as it ap- 
peared in the woods. The Fish and Game, Commissioners 
were at oti'ce "notified, and Mr. Carleton wired or d!ers for 
the moose not to -be harmed, but to caph^re it if possible. 
Later he- sent word for a' wire fence to be built ar'ound the 
animal, which was done. Still later,, the moose was 
taken down to Houghton's. Mr. Stephens writes that .she 
(he says "she," though Commissioner Stanle^j my in- 
formant, understood that it was an 800-pound fiull) took 
kindly to being captured after she found no lia'rm was 
intended to her. It is understood that the Commissioners 
think of putting the moose into some State park, but "that 
the inhabitants of the country where it was found be- 
lieve that it ought to be released in that section. It is well 
known to hunters that seVerarraoose have lived for some 
time in the vicinity of the mountains in Byron, and around 
Metallic Pond, to the west a few miles of where the train 
overtook this one. 
Commissioner Stanley says that the deer are very 
numerous in the vicinity of Dixfield, his home. They 
have been seen almost every day the past winter, by some- 
body. Dogs have given a great deal of trouble, evjsn the 
shepherds and collies, farmers' dogs, being determined to 
chase evei-y . deer they can get track of. Several dogs 
have been killed for this reason. 
The big cow moose, taken a few, miles above Hough- 
ton's, on the Portland & Rumford', Falls Railroad, of 
which the Forest and Stream already has an account, has 
been taken down to Merrymeeting Park, Brunswick, for 
treatment. Mr. Stewart, keeper at that park, and an ex- 
pert with game animals, was sent up after this moose on 
Friday. He was shown a photograph at Rumford Falls 
before he saw the moose. At once he pronounced it a 
buU, the bell and the hiii^pp on the back indicating the 
sex. But he was a little chagrined when he found it to 
be a cow after all. It is reported to be a beauty, how- 
ever, weighing about 800 pounds, and almost entirely 
black. Mr. J. E. Stephens, who photographed the moose, 
has been given the honor of naming her, and she is to be 
called Lady Bemis, Bemis being the celebrated camps of 
Capt. F. C. Barker, at the foot of Mooselucmaguntic 
Lake, at the terminus of the P. & R. F. R. R. Mr. Stewart 
found that the bind legs of the moose had been so badly 
injured, doubtless from her jump down over the trestle, in 
front of the railway train, that it was best to take her to 
Merrymeeting Park, where there are good facilities for 
treatment. He thinks that she will be all right in a few 
days, and later she will be taken to the State Hatchery 
Park at Monmouth. It is also suggested that she will be 
shown at the next Boston Sportsmen's Show; the biggest 
moose ever shown in captivity. It seems that the two 
buck deer from Merrymeeting Park shown at the Boston 
Show this year both died before reaching home. Mr. 
Stewart asked permission of the Commissioners to captuf-e 
another, and while at Houghton's after the moose he se- 
cured a nice buck, which he also took back to the park.' 
Even the School children were given a sight of the big 
moose at Rumford Falls, through the courtesy of the rail- 
way officials, who allowed the car to be stopped for tha't 
purpose. , Special. ' 
I 
Cfossbills in New York Again. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The appearance of crossbills (Loxia) of both species ifli 
New York and southern New England has several times' 
been noted in Forest and Stream during the past winter. 
Their coining during the cold weather is not surprising; 
though unusual, but after their last appearance late in 
February I hardly expected to hear of them again. ' 
Nevertheless this morning I saw a dozen red crossbills 
—including one male in particularly bright plumage— in' 
the same locality Avhence they have been once; or twice 
reported this winter— 156th street near Broadway. They 
were work-ing hard at the cones of a yellow pine and'ah 
adjacent Norway spruce, but acted as if the feeding ground 
had already been gleaned over. They flew from one tree" 
to another and then back again, passing rapidly from one 
branch to another, and then, seeming quite discouraged, 
took_ wings, flying south toward a group of hemlocks in 
Trinity Cemetery. It will be interesting to see whether 
they linger longer in this vicinity. G. 
.Niw \of K, A'piW 14. 
Gulls on the Susquehanna Rivet* 
Williamsport, Pa., April 10.— The Williamsport Sun 
of to-day reports : "The river between the Market street 
and Pennsylvania railroad bridges vesterday morning was 
ahve with sea gulls. There must have been 150 in the 
flock that circled about and finally settled down on the 
surface of the water, and many people watched their 
maneuvers "with much interest. It is supposed that the 
gulls were driven up the river from the Chesapeake Bay 
by a storm, as they usually go ahead of a storm. Such 
an unusually large flock of gulls has never been seen here- 
abouts before, it is said." 
•. The, gulls appeared during Sunday and left same day. 
The species which generally appear in front .of our city 
m the spring months are the Bonapartes (greatest num- 
ber), herring (occasionally), ring-billed (not common) 
and black-headed, or laughing (rare). 
AtJGUST kocH. . 
The Queer Ways on This Planet. 
At the time of my visit I found upon the earth many 
strange and interesting creatures. The habits and ways 
of some of them are extremely singular. None are more 
so than those of a certain kind, known as human beings 
who seem to regard themselves as of the first importance 
and as exceeding all the others in intelligence— doubtless 
a mistake, Tliese will destroy every kind of beautiful 
remarkable, attractive or wonderful thing, of which it 
seems, there once was the greatest profusion, both' in 
numbers and variety. Their powers of destruction are so 
very great, and these powers seem to develop so enor- 
mously by being constantly exercised, that one could 
never believe, without personal inspection, the havoc that 
they work among nature's most precious treasures not 
one of which, even the very least thereof, can these 
Iiuman beings, of themselves, make. No sooner are 
these things gone than these human beings bitteriy bewail 
the loss. They show by every sign. and sound one would 
believe them capable of making how deep is their per- 
vading regret at being deprived of what they themselves 
have so persistently destroyed. Nor is this all. They 
try in various very curious ways and at great trouble to 
-tjiemselves to restore many of these same things even 
; while continuing their astonishing practices of destruc- 
tion. _ They show willingness to do althost anything what- 
ever m the way of restoration, except to stop destroying-— 
y tnch really seems to a visitor to their abode all that 
would be necessary, nature, apparently, being able to do 
the rest. Indeed, from such observations as could be 
made upon the earth at the time which I mention (beine 
constantly occupied by the great number of other and 
remarkable things in view), it seems that no real restora- 
