344 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 4, igQt. 
actions when game is near; lie's a grand retriever, also, 
and I've no doubt he will give a good account of himself 
if we take him along." 
"Good," I replied, "We'll take him along, and be glad 
10 have his company; but how shall we arrange for lunch? 
VVe may be out all day." 
'.'If you would like to have me bring your lunch to the 
ialis at noon," said Phoebe, who had been watching our 
preparations for the day's hunt, "I shall be glad to. One 
of our neighbors, Miss Freeman, has invited me to accom- 
pany her to the old clearing down there to pick black- 
berries for preserving ; they are very abundant there, and 
we propose to spend the entire day in the work. We can 
carry lunch for all, join you at noon and we can take the 
rneal together." 
"That will be jolly, indeed!" I exclaimed. "We shall 
ctiftainly expect you. ' 
"Yes." added the guide; "we can work through the 
cover all along down the river to the falls, and that 
will use up the whole forenoon; we'll reach the pine 
grove below the upper falls by noon without any doubt." 
''I see that Uncle Bob is starting in on his fall plow- 
ing." said the guide, point'ng to a man who was busily 
engaged, with the aid of a pair of oxen, in turning over 
the green sward in an adjoining field. "We might cut 
across to where he is at work and ask him if he has -seen 
any woodcock lately; he owns a piece of swamp back of 
yonder hill that has always been a famous place for 'em," 
"Ail r ght," replied the Doctor; "it is nothing more 
than courtesy to ask his consent to shoot in his coverts; 
we win interview him." 
We soon traversed the distance between the meadow 
and the farmer, and pausing beside him we watched his 
operations. The plowman stopped his team at the end of 
the furrow, and wdpmg his head with a huge bandanna 
handkerch'ef. he greeted us with a "Good mornin'. gentle- 
men : good mornin', John. I heered ye've had great luck 
among the trout lately. Tm glad on't. Yes; glad on't. 
I wi^h more of your American sportsmen would come 
among us; as the preacher says, 'We need ye every hour.' " 
"I see you believe in fall plowing." said I, after the 
introductions had been made. 
"Yes," replied the farmer; "the.se cold, clay lands need 
a winter's opening with the frost to ripen 'em up, and 
even at the best they're poor crop bearers. I find that 
medder muck is no good on 'em, and barn manure, even, 
isn't much better. The land's too poor, but what's the 
odds? — even if we had big crops there's no market for 
'em. We're too far inland, and so we keep on farming in 
about the same way the darky took a contract to do a 
certain piece of work." 
"How was that?" asked the Doctor, becoming interested 
in the old man. 
"Didn't ye ever hear about it? Lord! I thought every 
one had heered the story, Y'e see. the darky took a con- 
tract to build a piece of wall for fifty dollars. He didn't 
figger clost enough, and whgn they came to settle up he 
discovered that he had to pay out for help and haulin' 
stone and sich, fifty-seven dollars. Some one joked him 
about it afterward, when he grinned and said, 'Yes, sah, 
there wan't much money in it, suah, but by golly 'twas 
wuff something to boss de job.' That's about all the satis- 
faction we're gittin' nowadays in farmin'." 
"Ha, ha! Uncle Bob," exclaimed the guide "You're 
always irrepressible !" 
"I'm what?" said the other. "Who says I'm irrespon- 
sible?" - ' 
"You're all right," replied John. "Have you seen any . 
woodcock lately?" 
"Woodcock? Yes; I started up three or four last night 
when I wa-s driving my cows up from pasture; they were 
down near the brook crossing in the swamp. But I don't 
b'lieve you'll git a chance at 'em, fpr they fly up mighty 
lively. You can't see 'em on the ground, for they're just 
the color of the dead leaves." 
"These gentlemen don't want to s6e them on the 
ground ; they shoot their birds on the wing," said John. 
"Oh 1" exclaimed the farmer, glancing at us with a 
somewhat skeptical expression on his face; "they're all 
right, then. I've seen pa'tridges shot on the wing, but it 
takes a good hunter to do it. I say. squire," he added, 
addressing the Doctor, "that's a mighty nice lookin' gun 
you've got there; two-barrelled, I see. and a breech- 
loader. I reckon that gun must 'a' cost a lot er money." 
"Yes," answered the Doctor ; "I paid fwo hundred and 
fifty dollars for it; but that was a number of years ago. 
The same kind of gim can now be bought at a much 
less price." 
"Whew 1" whistled Uncle Bob ; "two hundred and fifty 
dollars! Why, by gum! that's twicet what my steers afc 
worth," 
"We came to ask you if you have any objections to our 
hunting for woodcock in your swamp," said the Doctor. 
"Of "course not; shoot all ye can. and welcome, only 
take care and not hit any of my cows. Two hundred and 
fifty dollars for a gun! That gits me! Shoot all the 
birds ye can and welcome. Haw, Brown! Haw, Beauty!" 
he shouted to his oxen, and flourishing his whip, added, 
"Git up there, ye lazy critter's," and then to the Doctor 
and me, "Git all the birds ye can, but don't hit the cows," 
and the plow again began its slow course through the 
sward. 
"Ha. ha !" laughed the Doctor, as we climbed the h'll 
and descended to the swamp on the other side "the old 
man is quite a character; a rough diamond, but inter- 
esting." 
"Yes; old Uncle Bob is quite interesting in many 
ways," said the guide. "He is a hard worker, and his 
farin is not very profitable, but he keeps right along the 
same old steady jog year in and year out, and will to the 
end of the chapter." 
It is not my intention to follow in detail the sport we 
obtained during the forenoon's tramp through the coverts 
in pursuit of the long-billed beauties; suffice it to ^ay 
we bagged^three more. 
"I enjoy woodcock shooting very mvch'' remarked the 
Doctor as he smoothed the plumage of his last bird ; "to 
my m'nd there is no bird in .America mil ' . ' ^ 
rate, the ruffed grouse, that can compare with a flight 
woodcock, and on the table he is incomparable. But, 
John," he exclaimed, as he consulted his watch, "it is 
almost noon, and we promised to be at the falls at 12 
o'clock. Are we far from them?" 
"No," replied the guide; "listen a moment and you 
will hear their roar." As he spoke the murmur of falling 
water was heard apparently at no great distance. "We 
have been steadily working along toward them for the 
la=t hour. I did not forget your promise to Miss Freeman 
and Phcebe." 
"Well, we will go there withotit delay. W^e have had a 
good forenoon's sport, and I confess I long for a little 
luncheon." 
Our steps were now hastened in the direction of the 
falls, and it was not long before the sheet of brown and 
white foam.ng water was visible. As we clambered down 
the ledge that flanked the falls and entered the large 
clearing which lay between them and the grove of great 
pines and spruces that Phcebe had mentioned, we beheld 
the two girls running toward us hatless and with di- 
sheveled hair, screaming and gesticulating, apparently in 
great terror. 
"Oh. John!" ejaculated Miss Freeman, a slightly built 
blonde of apparently sixteen or seventeen years of age, 
"we've had an awful fright. There's an animal down in 
the grove like an enormous great cat. Oh, he has such 
savage great green and yellow eyes and long pointed 
ears, and he is eating another animal, and I gave such a 
scream when I saw him ! I got within six feet of him 
before I saw him, and when he jumped up I thought I 
should faint, I was so frightened. Ha, ha! Isn't it too 
funny ?" 
At this point the frightened girl began to grow hyster- 
ical, and it was several jninutes before we could reas.sure 
her. 
"Have no fear, young ladies," said the Doctor, "we 
are \vith 5^ou and the animal cannot touch you. I have no 
doubt it ran away from you as rapidly as you fled from it." 
"Did you see it. Phcebe?" asked the guide. 
"Yes; I got just a glimpse of it. Edna was ahead of 
me, and she almost stumbled over it before she saw it. 
It was a large lucivee (Loicpcevier) ." 
"Yes ; I thought so. It was a Canada! lynx," he added, 
turning to the Doctor and me. 
"Well, we'll put your dog on his trail," said the Doctor, 
substituting for the cartridges in his gun two loaded with 
buckshot. "We cannot have bobcats frightening young 
ladies in this manner. Come on !" he exclaimed, hurry- 
ing toward the grove ; "the lynx will be cmt of our reach 
if we delay." 
Following the Doctor, we hastened to the pine grove. 
At the spot where the girls had discovered the lynx we 
found the remains of a porcupine that the animal had 
killed and eaten. 
"Ha, -ha! Poor old quill pig!" exclaimed the Doctor. 
"Your race is run ! Now, John, let us see if your dog 
can find large game." 
The guide motioned to Dash and pointed to the spot 
where the porcupine lay. The dog began to scent over the 
ground around the spot, and in a moment he gave a growl, 
his hair stood erect on his back and he darted away with 
' his nose down, evidently in pursuit of the marauder, and 
uttering at the same time fierce barks, quite different from 
those he had emitted when in search of birds. Fainter 
and fainter grew the sounds as he followed the track 
further away; theii for a few moments they ceased, and 
then they were renewed, but in a different key. 
"Treed at last," ejaculated the guide. "We'll get that 
lynx without a doubt, and its skin will make a handsome 
rug for him who shoots it." 
"Well, we had better attend to the beast without delay," 
said the Doctor, moving rapidly in the direction from 
which the sounds came, "or your spaniel may meet with 
reverses." 
"I'm not alarmed on his account," replied John; "he 
can take care of himself." 
"Don't hurry so, please," exclaimed Edna ; "I can't keep 
up with you." 
"Hadn't you better wait here until we return?" asked 
the Doctor. 
"Not for worlds," she replied. "One experience with 
a lynx is enough for to-day." 
And so scrambling over rocks and windfalls and among 
the underbriish, we followed the Doctor and joined him 
just as he was about to aim at something high up in a 
towering old spruce, at the foot of which Dash was bark- 
ing with the greatest vigor. 
"I can see hiiu !" exclaimed Phoebe, pointing to an ani- 
mal that was perched on a high fork of the tree. "And 
see those ej'es; they are as big as saucers!" 
"The heavy report of the gun at that moment broke the 
stillness of the forest and echoed back and forth until its 
reverberations were lost in the distance. The lynx for an 
instant seemed paralyzed, then throwing out its huge 
forepaws it clung to the bough and endeavored to hold 
it'^elf in position. The gun again was discharged, when 
the animal loosened its hold, and crashing through the 
dry limbs of the tree fell to the ground, where, after a 
few struggles, which Dash watched with the keenest in- 
terest, it stretched itself out dead. 
"Upon my word," said the Doctor, "I do not wonder 
much at your being frightened; it's the largest Canada 
lynx I ever saw." 
"Yes," added the guide; "he's an exceptionally big 
brute. I don't see how it happens he was here, though; 
probably not in ten years has there been any out here so 
near the settlement. Well. Doctor," he added, lifting the 
animal by its hind legs and throwing it over his shoulder, 
"as T told you before, his skin will make a handsome 
rug for you," . ' » • 
"Now that we have disposed of the wildcat, said the 
Doctor. "I think it would be a good plan to partake of 
our lunch — that is, if we can find it." 
"Oh! yes," replied Phcebe; "I know just where I 
dropped it when Miss Freeman gave her first scream." 
"In that ca^e." said he, "we will return to the spot and 
recover it, and then find a comfortable place in the grove 
and have our mpal." 
The lunch basket was soon found and a delightful spot 
was chosen for a re=t-ng place, vi^here the ground was 
covered with long, soft moss and pine needles. The Ijmx 
was laid upon the ground near by. and close to it the 
dog reclined, evidently determined that it should not 
again escape. 
"Really, this is not half bad." said the Doctor, as he 
took a recumbent position against the gnarled and lichen- 
covered trunk of a tree. "Mrs. Murray has given us a 
capital lunch," he added, as the viands were spread out 
on a couple of_ large napkins, "and we have had exercise 
and excitement enough to make it thoroughly acceptable."^ 
"Yes, Doctor," said Edna, "but if you had not arrived 
just as you did perhaps the lynx would have made a lunch 
off Phoebe or me." 
''Not a bit of it," he replied, helping himself to a sand- 
wich; "the animal was, no doubt, as frightened as you 
were." 
The lynx that was stretched out on the moss beside 
us was a remarkably fine specimen of the Canada lynx 
(L. canadensis) , and was much larger than the ordinary 
bay lynx or bobcat (L, rufus) that is so often killed in 
Maine and some of the other New England States. 
The Canada lynx is pretty generally distributed through- 
out northern New England and Canada, and it is very 
destructive to game birds and animals. It prefers the 
solitude of the wilderness, and, unlike the bay Ijmx, sel- 
dom robs the farmer of his poultry, although occasionally 
the loss of a sheep or lamb is charged to his account. It is 
very powerful and active, making when pursued prodi- 
gious leaps, but generally if hard pressed it takes to a 
tree. It captures its prey by stealing on it until it is 
quite near, and then with a leap strikes it down. Its 
principal food is the Northern hare, but it will kill and 
eat almost any animal it can conquer. It often captures 
the fawns of the common deer by dropping on them from a 
tree that overhangs their path — in fact the mother deer 
sometimes falls a victim to its rapacity, she being un- 
able to shake off^ the relentless assailant. . 
Young moose are also captured in the same manner, but 
the cow moose is a hard fighter in defense of her young, 
and usually beats oft' the marauder. The porcupine also 
often falls a victim to the rapacious beast, and the facility 
with which the quill-covered rodent is flayed is wonderful. 
I have often found^the skin of one of these unfortunates 
that had been taken fron its body by a lynx, and a more 
perfect piece of work tJuld not be done by the sharp 
knife of a trapper. 
"What do you suppose the porcupine was created for. 
Doctor?" asked Phcebe, who was busily engaged in pluck- 
ing some of the longest quills or spines from the skin that 
lay before us. "We are told that every created thing has 
its mission, but I cannot see what this animal was sent 
here to accomplish." 
"It is not very apparent, I admit," he replied, "but no 
dotibt it has its place in .the great economy of nature for 
some wise purpose ; possibly it was designed as one of the 
food animals for the carnivora, its meager intelligence and 
peculiar habits rendering it an easy prey for the ma- 
rauders." 
The Canadian porcupine is almost exclusively an in- 
habitant of trees, being very rarely seen on the ground, 
and when it is found there it seems 'to be entirely out of 
its element, for it moves so slowly that it appears to 
almost lack the power of locomotion. It is chiefly diurnal 
in its habits, although it moves about sometimes in the 
night, particidarly in the mating season, at which period 
its dismal shrieks and quavering cries are often heard in 
the Northern forests. On many occasions the writer has 
when tenting in the wilderness been awakened at night 
by the wailing love notes of the "fretful porcupine." and 
the serenades have been so persistent sometimes that a 
resumption of sleep has been impossible. 
Its food consists of the bark, buds and smaller twigs and 
branches of trees, the hemlock, spruce, basswood and 
elm constituting its favorite diet. For an animal of its 
size, it is a gross feeder, the trees it attacks often being 
killed by being denuded of their bark. 
The quills of the Canadian porcupine are but slightly 
attached at their roots; they are sharp pointed and readily 
enter the flesh of an enemy, in which they remain, for 
they readily become detached from the porcupine's skin. 
"They are very finely barbed, and having entered living 
flesh every movement of the muscles of the victim causes 
them to penetrate deeper. So sl5w is the porcupine in its 
movements that it seems to regard all attempts at flight as 
useless, and when pursued it curls itself up on the 
ground, drawing its head and feet under its body and 
presenting to its assailant a mass of sharp and dangerous 
spines. If an opportunity oft'ers, it strikes severe blows 
with its tail, which is armed with the strongest quills, and 
is, in fact, the animal's chief weapon. A well-placed blow 
from the tail fills its opponent with the sharp-barbed 
spines, and these have been known to cause death in ani- 
mals that have molested them. 
"See, Doctor," exclaimed Phoebe, in a low voice, point- 
ing to a large heron that was standing on -the shore of 
the river a few rods from where we were sitting, "there is 
a newcomer; he has not seen us yet. What a beauty 
he is!" 
"Yes," replied the Doctor: "it is the great blue heron; 
if we keep quiet he will not discover us, and we can watch 
him feeding." 
Not a word was spoken nor a motion made that would 
attract the attention of the bird, and we were thus en- 
abled to watch his movements, which we did with the 
keenest interest. 
It was a large adult bird in perfect plumage, its long 
crest of delicate, tapering feathers showing plainly as it 
raised or depressed it in rnoving about. Out into the 
shallow water it waded, and for a fe^v moments it stood 
as motionless as a statue, then with a dart as quick as a 
flash its long, sharp bill w^as thrust into the water, and a 
small fish was seized and quickly swallowed. The bird 
again became motionless, and in a few moments another 
fish was captured and eaten. 
"Shoot him!" whispered John. "He'll depopulate the 
river." 
"No, no; don't kill the handsome creature," said Phosbe; 
"he is entitled to a dinner, surely." 
"No; I'll not shoot hira," replied the Doctor"' in a low 
tone. "He has a perfect right here, given him by the 
Creator, and the few fish he eats are as nothing compared 
with those that the minks and fisher. cats and otters and 
sheldrakes destroy." 
"He's off!" exclaimed Phoebe, as the bird opened his 
wide wings and flew away. "His keen eyes must have dis- 
covered us." 
"Yes," said the Doctor; "his senses are very acute. 
This is the largest of our herons, and in my opinion the 
handsomest." 
"An interesting fact in relation to this heron has been 
