206 
American Wildfowl and How to 
Take Them*— IL 
BY GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL. < 
{Continued from page 1ST.] 
Swans. 
Sub-Family Cygnince. 
The swans are the largest of our water fowl, and the 
American species measure nearly or quite 5 feet in 
length. The naked skin of the bill runs back to the 
eye, covering the lores; the bill is high at the base, but 
broad and iiattened toward the tip; the tarsus is reticu- 
late, and shorter than the middle toe. In our species 
the feathers do not come down to the tibio-tarsal joint. 
The two American species are white in the adult plum- 
age, the immature birds being gray. 
K 
, The Trumpeter Swan. 
Olpr buccinator (Rich.). 
The plumage of the trumpeter swan is white through- 
out, the naked black skin of the bih extends back to the 
eyes, covering what is called the lores, and the bill and 
feet are wholly black. The tail feathers are twenty-four 
in number, and this character will distinguish it from 
our only other swan, the species which follows. The bill 
is longer than the head, and the bird measures about S 
feet in total length. The spread of wings is great, some- 
times 10 feet. Audubon records a specimen which weighed 
38 pounds. 
The young are gray, the head often washed with rusty, 
but grow whiter as they advance in years. The gray of 
the head and neck is the last to disappear. In the young 
the bill is ilesh color at the base, dusky at tip ; feet gray. _ 
The trumpeter swan is a Western species, and is 
scarcely found east of the Mississippi River. Formerly 
it bred over much of the Western country, though un- 
doubtedly most of the birds repaired to the far North 
to rear their young. Many years ago we found it breed- 
ing on a little lake in Nebraska, and I have seen it in 
summer on the Yellowstone Lake, in Wyoming. The 
nest is built on the ground, and the eggs vary in num- 
ber from two to five. • " 
In agreement with what is known of the trumpeter 
swan in the United States, its breeding grounds in the 
North appear to be inland. Explorers give the Hudson 
Bay as one of its resorts, where it is said to be one of 
the earliest migratory birds to arrive. It breeds on the 
islands and in the marshes, and on the shores of the 
fresh-water lakes, and is said to lay from five to seven 
eggs. It is stated also that it is monogamous, and that 
the mating is for life. During the period of the molt, 
when the swans are unable to &y, they are eagerly pursued 
by the Indians, not always successfully, since they are 
able to swim and to flap over the water as fast as a canoe 
can be paddled. The swan breeds also in the barren 
grounds on the head of the Fraser River, and at various 
points on the Mackenzie River; it has been reported also 
from Norton Sound. 
The note of the trumpeter, from which it takes its 
name, is loud and resonant and so closely resembles that 
of the sandhill crane that it is not always easy to dis- 
tinguish the two apart The young birds of the year are 
pale gray in color, and the plumage of the body becomes 
white earlier than that of the head and neck. These young 
birds are very good eating, while the older ones, as a 
rule, are very tough and hardly edible. 
American Swan. 
Olor columbianus (Ord.). 
The common swan is slightly smaller than the trump- 
eter, but is colored like it, except that on the naked lores, 
just before the eye, there is a spot of yellow. This, how- 
ever, is not invariably present, and is usually lacking in 
the young birds. The tail feathers are twenty instead of 
twenty-four, and this with the fact that the nostrils oj)en 
half-way down the bill (instead of being in the basal 
half, as in the trumpeter swan), will always serve to dis- 
tinguish the two. 
The young are gray, with a pink bill, which later 
turns white, and finally black. As the young grow older, 
the body becomes white, then the neck, and last of all 
the head. 
During the autumn, winter and spring this swan occurs 
in greater or less abundance all over the United States, 
occasionally being found as far south as Florida. It is 
rarely seen, however, off the New England coast. Its 
breeding grounds are in Alaska, and Mr. Dall reported 
it common all along the Yukon, and says that it arrives 
with the geese about May i, but appears coming down 
the Yukon instead of up the stream. It breeds in the 
great marshes, near the mouth of that river. 
This species is said to be much more common on the 
Pacific than on the Atlantic coast, in winter resorting 
in great numbers to lakes in Washington. Oregon and 
portions of California, where it is often found mingled 
with the trumpeter swan. It is common in winter on 
the South Atlantic coast. 
The whooping swan of Europe (Cy^uus cygiius) is 
supposed to occur in Greenland, and is therefore given in 
the ornithologies as a bird of America. It has not been 
taken on this continent. It is white in color, and has the 
bill black at the tip, with the lores and basal portion of 
the bill yellow. 
[The species described in the issue of next week will be : 
The two snow geese, blue goose. Ross' goose, white- 
fronted goose and emperor goose.] 
A Veteran Rhode Island Sportsman. 
The late Edgar Pratt._ of Providence, was one of the 
most ardent sportsmen in the State, having since boy- 
hood been a lover of hunting and fishing, and had always 
taken an active interest in the preservation of the game 
birds of Rhode Island. 
FOREST_AND_STREAM. 
Mr, Pratt was born in Bridgewater, Conn,, in 1839, 
A little more than twenty years ago he became connected 
with the firm C. F. Pope <& Co., which for years was the 
meeting place of the foremost gunners and fishermen of 
the State, and it was here that he became on intimate 
terms with such well-known men as Newton Dexter, 
Horace Bloodgood, Henry Saxton and a number of 
others who wielded the rod and gun. 
Edgar Pratt lor many years made trips with these 
gentlemen in the Maine woods and Adirondacks for big 
game, and along the Atlantic Coast for fish, and he was 
the life and soul of the party, possessing a fund of anec- 
dote and always having a good story on tap. He was 
quite a joker, but his jokes never had a stmg, and in 
consequence his friends grew in number from year to 
year. — Providence News. 
Maine September Deer Hunting. 
Boston, Sept. lO.-^The Maine $6 license deer hunting 
season, which had started oft with someihmg of a boom, 
has come near to being brought to an abrupt termination. 
An Augusta dispatch of Saturday says the Fish and Game 
Commissioners nave issued ordbrs tnat no more Septem- 
ber licenses be sold. This is by reason of the serious 
drought which prevails in most parts of that State, ren- 
dering forest fires exceedingly liable. Indeed, some bad 
fires have already started in Hancock and other counties, 
and are ragmg seriously m valuable timber lands. I he 
exceedingly wet weather which prevailed in most of the 
wooded country of Maine during June and July haa been 
followed by no rain at all for several weeks, and reports 
say that the forests are extremely dry. Doubtless the 
timber land owners have invoked tne aid of the Fish and 
Game Commissioners, who have the licensing of Septem- 
ber hunters in hand, to keep the hunters out of their 
forests as much as possible. 1 do not understand that 
it is in the power of the Commissioners to revoke deer- 
killing licenses already issued, though they have -issued 
orders to both game wardens and licensed guides to use 
every precaution to prevent the starting ot forest fires. 
The September licenses are for sale at different hunting 
resorts, and the order to sell no more is likely 
to be obeyed rather slowly. It is possible to date 
a license back a few days. Possibly the Commissioners 
may not be willing to believe that such a trick would be 
attempted, but one can hardly help mistrusting the work- 
ing of strch a system, especially when aware that the 
licenses are for sale by the proprietors of hunting and 
fishing resorts who have allowed the killing of deer by 
guides and guests all through the month of August. This 
is a pretty strong assertion, but I have seen a letter, writ- 
ten in August, by a lady stopping at one of these hunting 
resorts, to a lady friend, stating that the guides "mys- 
teriously disappear at night," and that "mountain lamb" 
is served on the table the next day, and for several days 
afterward. The proprietor of the camps frohi which the 
letter was written has the September licenses for sale. 
As stated above, the September license shooting of deer- 
has started off with a good deal of force, and a good many 
deer have been killed. A Dixfield, Me., hunter was one 
of the first successful ones to be reported. He had his 
deer located. They were coming out into the fields to feed 
every morning. He was on hand before daylight the 
first day of September. The weather has continued as hot 
as August, and the deer have continued coming down to 
the water, especially since the woods are so very dry. 
Hunters with licenses in hand have been successful in 
killing deer by simply being on hand at the water and 
near to the runways. This has been additional sport for 
the late fishermen, who have dragged their stay into 
September. Special. 
TheLMountain Quail of North 
Carolina* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I- read with much pleasure your correspondent's recent 
description of the "pink beds" on the Vanderbilt estate 
in western North Carolina, I have been there and seen. 
But there is another location in that section still wilder, 
more rugged, more mountainous, and 1,000 feet higher 
on the plateau, where precipices drop 1,800 feet perpen- 
dicular, a dozen waterfalls leap crags twice the height 
of Niagara and lakes two miles long fill up the deep 
valleys between the peaks. There are no other lakes in 
the whole mountain region. Here the mountain trout 
(true speckled salmos) turn the scales (their scales) at 
2 pounds avoirdupois, quail fly higher than anywhere else 
in the South, foxes are keener, deer run better, bears are 
more lusty and wild turkeys strut more and scratch 
harder than in any other part of the Blue Ridge. Once 
in a while a panther (the true Felis concolor) stirs the 
woody precincts of the pine-root bogs; and the delight 
of it all is that it is not only easily accessible by rail and 
graded turnpike, but available to the public. 
For eight consecutive years this inimitable game pre- 
serve of 26,000 acres of wilderness and tilled acres ad- 
joining Biltmore has been policed by the mining and 
hotel company which owns it, and each succeeding year 
under its rules adds to the abundance and variety of its 
game. Guests have privileges, under permit, to shoot 
and fish all over it, and living accommodations are fur- 
nished to each according to his means and choice. 
I would like, Mr. Editor, to speak more definitely of 
this region, but perchance other landlords would be 
jealous; and besides, it needs no advertising for profit. 
Each one of its three well appointed hotels has been 
crowded all summer, and they accommodate, with aux- 
iliary cottages, some nine hundred guests. The com- 
pany owns and operates thirty-one miles of railroad, and 
at its terminus mountain wagons are ready to whisk the 
tourist up to Midlothian heights at a speed of five miles 
an hour, or even to the sky line of Mt. Toxaway, 5,000 
feet above sea level, where there is a lookout lodge which 
harbors a score of such guests as desire to remain over 
night and see the sun set and rise and observe the 
planets in their glory. An easy carriage drive like this 
to so high an altitude is phenqthwal in OTOUntain climb- 
iS&rt. 15, igoo. 
ing. But saddle horses are available at all times when 
wanted, and rough and gentle riders from every corner 
of the United States go up almost severy day the year 
around to register, preparatory to voting that the out- 
look is incomparable, for, from the rounded summit of 
Mt. Toxaway, which stands an isolated cone in the cen- 
tral landscape, an undulating cincture of blue eminences 
belts the horizon at twenty miles equi-distant, among 
which it is claimed that no less than forty are 6,000 feet 
high and upward. Such a marvelous presentment chal- 
lenges comparison. Visitors to the White Mountains, 
in New Hampshire, for instance, will stand in awe of 
'the Presidential Range, aligned in grim array against 
the sky; but here we have a circumvallation forty miles 
in diameter which includes elevations like Pisgah, Mitch- 
ell, Black Mountain, Chimney Top, Bald Rock, White 
Top- and a dozen others, all noted and higher than Mt. 
Washington. There is very little to break the contin- 
uity of forest which blankets the intervening expanse, 
only a clearing here and there or a bit of color lilce the 
feldspar cHffs of Whitesides. But the kaleidoscopic 
changes of sunlight and shsl'dow, rainbows and showers, 
fogs and mists, umbrous and tenuous clouds, the play of 
lightning and passing of the winds, are transcendent. 
From my vantage point on the observation tower I have 
seen four showers at once at different points of the 
compass — seen them conceived of the vapors, bred on 
the sky line, approach, culminate, drench the earth, dis- 
solve and disappear in a sea of sunlight blent with 
roseate, green and yellow colors like those which envelop 
St. John's celestial city. 
I have said that quail fly higher here than aywhere 
else, and so they do. They are mountain quail, sure 
enough. None of your tacky pjny woods partridges 
that pick in the pea patches of the low country, but great 
plump fellows that flock on the high summits and "rise" 
with the sheep and young turkeys and come with the 
rest to take a handout from the lodge keepers. I have 
seen meadow larks, too, 6,000 feet above the sea. But 
the finest quail shooting of all is around Brevard, in the 
valley of the French Broad, which is here controlled by 
the company I speak of. All through this month of 
September they will be good flyers, and from Oct. i to 
March they will be in prime condition. If I were to rec- 
ommend any place in the State to sportsmen it would be 
this. So much comfort goes with it, too; such effusive 
hospitality and no hardship, with a winter climate 
which averages 40.3 degrees, against Asheville's 37.2 
and many sunny days when the temperature tantivy© 
between 60 and 70 degrees; no corn-shuck shakedowns, 
no sinkers, no vermin. Half way up the mountains 
among the tote roads and prospectors' trails it is diffi- 
cult for a novice to distinguish between the deer trails 
and hog tracks. The former are the most plentiful, as will 
be apparent to those who see the point. The deer's toe 
is sharper than the hog's. Ruffed grouse are found in fair 
abundance, while turkeys are plenty near the corn fields 
and farm houses, lower down. Bear trails, worn smooth 
by frequent use, traverse the woods, too often near the 
pig pens, and Mr. Chas. N. Jenks, one of the early min- 
ing engineers, claims a record of twenty-seven of the 
brutes. Lynxes, wildcats, opossums and raccoons add to 
the variety of game. The fact of the woods being bare of 
leaves two months sooner there than on the Atlantic side 
of the State makes a trip to Jackson county most attract- 
ive, while the expense is at a minimum. The Maine 
guide foolishness does not pervade this precinct. You 
get your permit from the manager and the natives are 
there to offer their services. There isn't much tar on 
their heels in this pact pf the State. 
Charles Hau.ock. 
An Adventure with a Moose. 
Dead River, Me., Sept. 4. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
On August 17 Messrs. F, D. Asche and F. D. Van Nos- 
tra'nd, of New Yoik city, came up here for a two weeks' 
trip. A few days were spent in fishing near by home on 
the Dead River for pickerel and small streams for brook 
trout, and they had good luck, getting all they wanted. 
We then packed up and started for Black Brook Camp, 
ten miles back in the woods, where pond fishing was to 
be had for trout and where they might see some big 
game. 
After getting a good mess of trout and supper being' 
over, I suggested that we take a row up the stream to 
see some game and get some trout for breakfast. We 
had not gone far when we heard loud splashes in the 
water ahead of us. All kept still and I paddled on. It 
.was beginning to get dark, and as we went around a turn 
in Beaver Stream what should we come on to but four 
moose — a big bull, a cow and two calves. We paddled 
up to wuthin 5 rods of them. The bull went ashore and 
started away. I ran the boat in ahead of the calves and 
the cow started for the shore. The old buU was now 
about 150 yards away, when he stopped and gave a loud 
bellow. All the others stopped and stood their ground. 
He made the second challenge and then charged on 
ns, coming back into the water very near our boatj and 
about this time we began to realize what we were up 
against, and slowly we backed away from him, not 
daring to turn around for fear of a more fierce attack. 
Slowly we crept away and got to camp, all vowing that 
they had been just as close t© a- "buU moose as they ever 
cared to get. 
Three other attempts were irfade during our stay there 
to go up to Beaver Dam, and each time we were faced 
by the bull and challenged to stop or expect a fight. 
We all stopped. But what a chance if only it had been 
open season. 
The boys saw deet in every place they went; several 
nice bucks. Ten were seen in one daj'. All could have 
been shot very easily. They also saw a Avildcat. While 
here tliey got about 100 trout and fifty pickerel, the larg- 
est 672 pounds. They were well pleased with their trip 
and they say if an5'' one wants to get into a wild place and 
among big game they can surely find it here. They also 
saw two beavers, with partridges and ducks in large 
numbers. They are planning for a larger party another 
year and a much longer stay, so as to be here in the 
shooting season. Jim Harlow, ^ 
I 
