FOREST ANt> STREAM. 
7 
portant element of the food, and ants a small, but fairly 
-constant item, about 3 per cent, for the year. 
Blackbirds. — In the District of Columbia red-winged, 
or marsh, blackbird {Agelaius phwniceus) are treated as 
game birds and an open season for shooting them is set 
apart. The argument is made that on account of the 
damage they do to grainfields, particularly in the spring 
and autumn, blackbirds may be kept from becoming too 
abundant by treating them as game. But it may well be 
questioned whether this would reduce their numbers as 
effectually as if they were excluded entirely from pro- 
tection in localities where they are injurious. Game birds 
are necessarily protected for a longer or shorter time 
during the breeding season, while species excepted from 
protection may be killed at any season. A full account 
of the food habits of the various blackbirds may be found 
in Bulletin No. 13 of the Biological Survey. 
Robins. — In some sections of the South, particularly in 
New Orleans, all kinds of small birds, even thrushes, are 
considered legitimate game, and are offered for sale in 
the markets. According to Prof. H. Nehrling, "one main 
cause of the fearful decrease of oui. small migratory birds 
must be looked for in our Southern States. There, mil- 
lions of all kinds of birds, are killed to satisfy the palate 
of the, gourmand. * * * There is scarcely a hotel in 
New Orleans where small birds do not form an item on 
the bill of fare. At certain seasons the robin, wood 
thrush, thrasher, olive-backed thrush, hermit thrush, che- 
wink, flicker and m^ny of our beautiful sparrows form the 
Two Weeks in the Maine Woods. 
Our party consisted of four. This being our second 
season in the woods together, we have organised ourselves 
into a club, which we call the "Big Indian Gun Club," 
taken from the location of our camp in the fall of '98, 
which was on Big Indian Pond. We left civilization the 
morning of Nov. 8, and met at White River Junction, 
Vt. J:<rom there we went to Lenoxville, P. Q., where we 
took the Canadian Pacific R. R. through to Lowelltown, 
Me., leavmg the train at Skinner's Station, where we 
arrived about 2:30 A, M. Nov. 9 with Mr. Frink and 
party from Montpelier, Vt., who were out for a two 
weeks' hunt. Mr. Skinner was soon up and arranging 
sleeping accommodations for us. We got a few hours' 
rest, and after having breakfast at Hotel De Skinner 
finished our plans for getting into camp, which we decided 
to make at a logging camp on Dead Stream, about two 
and a half miles from Skinner's Station. I was left at the 
station to get our provisions together. Mr. Skinner 
has a store here well stocked with everything one could 
wish for. A post office has recently been established here 
and is located in one corner of the store. The rest of the 
party started for camp with a part of our outfit, and were 
coming back for dinner, when we were all to go in for 
good. 
After I had all our provisions together, had mailed a 
letter home, and everything was ready for camp, I had 
idea where we were, but started in the direction that we 
thought camp was, and soon were on familiar ground and 
not far from where we had started on his trail. If it had 
all been in a straight course we would have been obliged 
to lay out that night. 
We took the trail the next morning, and followed it 
until nearly noon, when we left it on the edge of the burnt 
land, where he had found another deer and gone off in 
company. We hung up one more this day. It is needless 
to say that we were enjoying every moment of our outing. 
We had soiiie hard tramps, but generally we found the 
days not long enough. 
A Frenchman came into our camp one day bewailing 
his misfortune. It seems he was employed by the rail- 
road company; had obtained permission to be off duty 
for the day, and had borrowed an old gun and started 
out in expectation of taking home a deer for family use. 
He said, "I met with one big misfortune, too bad, too 
bad!" Joe was alone in camp, and he thought the man 
had shot some one, and asked him what was the trouble. 
■'Oh. he big fellow; awful big one — too bad. I loose him. 
Don't see how I could miss him; very bad misfortune," 
and so on. Joe went out with him, and found the tracks 
of a doe and a big buck close by the camp. The French- 
man had shot at thein both and missed; no signs of blood 
could be found. He had an old gun, which had not been 
shot for a long time; it would have been a chance shot if 
he had brought one of them down. This was a case that 
is often repeated of parties going into the woods with 
PHOTOGR.A.PHS OF WILD BEER. 
By Mr. Geo, Pan. S<?ib, Frgnj "Wooijcraft Magazine," 
bulk of these victims; but catbirds, cardinals and almost 
all small birds, even swallows, can be found in the 
markets." Mr. Andrew Allison, of New Orleans, gives 
similar testimony: "In the fall migrations, when all the 
migrants are literal butterballs, appalling numbers of cat- 
birds, wood thrushes, rey-eyed vireos, kmg birds, tanagers 
and in fact any easily shot birds are killed * * * near 
the coast towns. Wood thrushes and catbirds are more 
persecuted than any other, under the nam.e of grasse, and 
many are sent to the markets here in September and 
October." 
Robins (Merula migratorid) are perhaps more generally 
killed than any of the other thrushes, and in some States 
their killing is legalized at certain seasons — for example, 
in North Carolina, from Oct. 15 to April i. A few years 
ago large numbers of robins were shipped to the markets 
of Washington, D. C, from various points in Virginia and 
North Carolina. In the spring of 1897 no less than 2,700 
were received in one lot. These birds were killed near 
roosts just before the northward migration set in; for- 
tunately their sale could be stopped in the District of 
Columbia, but their killing at this season was lawful in 
North Carolina. 
It seems hardly necessary to call attention to the in- 
sectivorous habits of robins; but a few details may add 
emphasis. In an examination of 330 stomachs. 42 per cent, 
of the food was found to consist of animal matter, chiefly 
insects, while the remainder was made up largely of 
small fruits or berries. Grasshoppers, caterpillars and 
beetles composed the principal part of the insect food, 
grasshoppers forming nearly 30 per cent, of the total food 
in the month of August. The vegetable element. 58 per 
cent., was largely composed of wild fruits, which had been 
eaten in nearly every month. Cultivated fruit was found 
in small amounts, chiefly in stomachs collected in June and 
July, but the depredations of the birds seemed to be 
confined mainly to smaller and earlier fruits, and as Pro- 
fessor Beal has shown, the damage thus done may be 
obviated hj planting wild fruits, which the birds prefer 
to cultivated varieties. 
There is a rule in the Gazette office to shut up shoo on 
holidays. The paper is very thin on Memorial Day, 
Fourth of July. Christmas and Thanksgiving. If the sub- 
scribers don't like it they can just naturally lump it, and 
if that is hard, they can stop it. When the owner of the 
Gazette was working on a salary for other men. he swore 
a mighty oath that the holidays of his employees should 
be respected,— Emporia (Kan.) Gazette. 
one hour before dinner. I loaded my Winchester and 
started out for a walk. I had not been out over thirty 
minutes, and was not over half a mile from the store on 
a branch of the Moose River, when I shot my first buck. 
I bled him, and as I did not have any hatchet with me I 
decided to let him lie and wait until the boys came back 
before hanging him up. and get points from Joe, who, 
by the way, was our guide, and one of the best huiiters 
in the Maine woods. I had considerable sport "jollying" 
them, and got them in nearlj^ to where the deer lay before 
telling them I had shot one. They had sport with me 
later to pay for this. After dressing and hanging up 
the buck under Joe's directions, we went to the mill and 
got our dinner; then started for camp, where we arrived 
just before dusk. 
The next day it rained nearly all - day. We passed the 
time gathering wood and repairing gamp. Two of the 
boys went out and brought in two partridges, which, 
with the heart and liver of the buck, which we brought 
in with us, made quite an addition to our bill of fare. 
They also reported a big buck with a fine pair of antlers 
as the result of the afternoon's hunt. This big buck, 
however, proved to be the smallest buck fawn, but I did 
not discover the joke until after I had made a trip out to 
the mill and told them all about the big buck we had 
hung up in the woods. This was to pay for my fun with 
them a fey days before. We had no snow until Sunday, 
Nov. 12, when it snowed all day. The hunting was good 
after that. 
George and myself started out one morning for a day's 
hunt in the burnt land. We separated, and soon after I 
saw a buck about 125 yards from me walking slowly. 
He stopped a moment near an old top. I fired, and he 
started on the run in the direction of a swamp, and I 
after him. I had not followed far, when I saw a drop of 
blood. I shouted to George to come on; then the chase 
began. 
I came up to him once, and had just time to give him a 
parting shot as he went over the brow of a hill. He had 
been lying down, but we did not give him a chance to do 
so again. We were now well warmed up, and pressed 
him hard. He soon knew we were on his trail, and 
began playing fox with us through the swamps and lily- 
wags. He would jump off to one side, and then come back 
again and circle around us, and do his best to throw us 
off the trail. We kept this up as late as we dared to, then 
held a council of war to determine where we were. The 
signs of blood had disappeared, so we decided he was 
not wounded seriously, but we would take up the trail 
in the morning and follow him up. We had not much 
strange guns, and oftentimes with the sights out of order. 
We had five hung up the first week, and during the 
second week we spent more time exploring the country 
and gathering gum. Two weeks of camp life in these 
woods is worth more than the services of a physician for 
a whole year. We dread to think of the day when our 
time is up and we have to break camp and start' for home. 
We have' all the partridges we can eat. They sit still just 
long enough to lose their heads by a rifle ball. There 
are some mink and otter around us. Joe is making figure 
4 traps for them. A white weasel has been holding high 
carnival in our camp; he carries off our meat and any- 
thing he can get hold of. and keeps us awake nights 
chasing the little deer mice over the camp. He got out 
of our trap twice, and finally George got a bead on him 
with the shotgun outside of camp. We now have his 
pelt for a souvenir. A red squirrel got into the cabin 
one morning. We were all suddenly awakened by his 
trill On opening our eyes, there he was on the opposite 
side of the camp clinging to a log looking at us, as much 
as to say. "It is time you were up." 
Our time was growing rapidly short. Monday morning 
we broke camp. Saturday we brought in our largest 
buck, which had been hung up about two miles from camp. 
We strapped him to a pole and carried him out of ilie 
burnt land; then we tied a long rope to his horns; and 
one with the rope over his shoulders and under the arms 
acted as leader, while two more took hold of the horns — 
one on each side. In this manner we dragged him to 
camp over the snow. We had seven deer at this time, 
one more would give us two apiece, all the law allows; 
but it looked doubtful if we would get it. However, there 
were five hours left before dark, and we might get a shot 
on our way out Monday morning. Saturday at 8:30 P. 
M. we had all been hunting hard since noon except Joe, 
who stayed in camp until late, when a feeling suddenly 
came over him that if he went out he could shoot a deer. 
He- took his rifle down and started, and in a short time 
brought down the finest buck we have seen since coming 
into the woods. It would weigh nearly 200 lbs. I came 
into camp soon after Joe had started out. In about thirty 
minutes I heard some one coming, and then , George 
shouted, "Hurry, and come out here; man hurt!" I 
started, thoroughly frightened, thinking some one was 
injured. It was growing quite dark, but I could see 
them coming dragging something between them, which 
proved to be Joe's big buck. Now we had as fine a string 
of same as you often see. 
The next day found us on our journey home. The 
Big Indian Gun Club voted a first-class otlting at Camp 
