6 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 2, 1903- 
New Edition of Coues* Key. 
Messrs. Dana Estes & Co. announce thai the fifth re- 
vised edition of the Key to North American Birds, by 
Dr. Elliott Coues, will be read}' in the spring of 1903. 
When Dr. Coues died in 1899 he left , the manuscript 
wholly finished, but not in such shape that it could go to 
the printer. Publication has been delayed by the fact 
that the task of revision and preparation for the press 
required a great amount of extra labor. Some of the 
features of the work may be briefly summarized: 
1. The detailed, careful description of species. 
2. The accounts, much fuller than in former editions, 
of the breeding habits of birds— dales, nests, and particn- 
hirly the detailed description of eggs, with measurements. 
3. The full collation in the, text of the nomenclature 
of species in the Key, with nomenclature and numeration 
of the American Ornithologists' Union Check List. 
4. Full synonynies and bibliographical references in 
the case of nearly all species — a new feature. 
5. The professional discussion of questions of classifi- 
cation and nomenclature. 
6. The introductory descriptions of ordinal, family, 
and other groups, are much amplified over those in pre- 
ceding editions of the Key, being of a broad scope, which 
make plain the comparative relationships of North Ameri- 
can families, genera, and species of birds, with extr:i- 
limital forms. 
7. The explanation of the etymology of scientific names 
is retained. 
The Dowbting- Didymus* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
A man who manufactures stupid lies and palms them 
off on the public with intent to deceive, is a sort of 
nuisance; but there are such things as interesting liars. 
Mark Twain, for instance, whose munchausenisms are 
always filled with wit and fun. 
I also feel like saying to your contributor, Frank 
Heywood, "You're another," for his preposterous lies 
are worked up in such a way that T cannot skip them; 
but if he expects to claim the prize in that line let 
him read the following extract from the last issue of 
Forest and Stream on the Migration of Squirrels, and 
his ambition will be curbed. It is there recorded that 
myriads of squirrels came to the Mississippi River 
and hesitated, but said, "Leander swam the Hellespont, 
and we can swim this 'ere,'' and accoutred as they 
were, they plunged in. But some of them didn't swim 
this 'ere, for, before they got across they met with 
an obstruction. 
The writer says he "has seen persons go along and 
pick them up by the tail, throwing them into sacks 
in any quantity desired, and has seen parties go out 
in boats to meet tJie swimming hordes, picking the 
squirrels up by the tails and throwing them into bas- 
kets and bags in the boat." 
Now, as they were swimming, they must have been 
alive, and a live squirrel is about the liveliest thing 
alive, except a monkey, so picking them up by the 
tail must act like a powerful dose of ether, to kill them 
off so sudden! — which discovery scientists make a note 
of! DiDYMUS. 
Sr. AUGU-.TINE, Dec. 24. 
Deacon Jones — "Don't you think it wrong for A'our lius- 
band to go fishing on the Sabbath?" Mrs. Brown — 
"Wrong? It's positively wicked the way he wastes his 
time and his money on tackle and bait, and liardly ever 
brings home more than one or two mean little fishes." — 
Boston Transcript. 
§iin{e §iig mid §mu 
— ^ — 
Proprietors of shooting resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
Redheads Near New York. 
llditor Forest and Stream: 
The subject of redhead shooting may prove of some 
interest to the readers of Forest and Stream, and 
to call attention to the sport of ducking for these 
magnificent birds in a location tsdiich lies at our very 
door, may also be of value to many of our city sports- 
men, who may be ignorant of the existence, so near 
our city, of such choice birds, the pursuit of wliicli 
makes it possible to follow without the long, tedious 
railroad travel that reaching southern gunning points 
involves. 
For many years, off and on, I have followed this 
favorite sport, confining my operations mainly to the 
south side of eastern Long Island. My favorite spot 
lias been for many years from Reeves Island on the 
east to Pattersquash on the west in Moriches Bay. 
This whole territory has, however, of late years 
denied access to the amateur gunner, because the 
Smith estate, having been confirmed in their con- 
tention that they owned the bottom of the bay, have 
leased the grounds to private parties, to the ex- 
clusion of every one, and therefore it became neces- 
sary to seek other fields or give up the sport entirely. 
East of Reeves Island, however, the East Bay con- 
tinues on till we reach the bridge that spans it, and 
thus afifords access to the beach; in this body of 
water, brackish and fed continually by the fresh-water 
streams, many in number, grows in great profusion 
the wild celery with which we associate Mr. Canvas- 
back, Mr. Redhead, Mr. Widgeon, etc., etc. As a 
result of the luxuriant growth of this plant, redheads, 
mainly, are attracted in great numbers, and so raven- 
ous is the appetite of these "gourmets" that ' when 
routed from one spot they fly a few hundred yards 
and settle down in the midst of a feast again. 
Spending very pleasantly a few weeks during the 
past summer at East Moriches, enabled me to get 
acquainted with the conditions of ducking, and having 
incidentally taken in a little snipe shooting, I was 
not loath to try the redhead when favorable oppor- 
tunity presented itself, i placed myself in the hands 
'of O. B. Tuthill, who, I observe, is an advertiser in 
your paper, and bav.e been with him on two trips. 
The last week in October and the first week in 
December I visited East Moriches for the sport. My 
bag on either trip would not appeal to the impatient 
and covetous gunner, but to the philosophic lover of 
nature,, armed with a powerful telescope with which 
lie may sweep over the expanses of the bay. such a 
one may experience the satisfaction that comes only 
to the modest, patient gunner, who feels amply re- 
warded with a medium bag of ten or a dozen birds. 
Mind you, these ten or a dozen birds will be worth, 
commercially, four or five times the quantity of 
broadbills or other inferior birds. I'd rather have 
a half dozen of these redheads than two or three 
dozen of the common A^arieties; but — and this is the 
unvarnished _ fact— if you wanted tbe common kind, 
you wouldn't get them, for they are not there; the 
redheads are there in battalions, in brigades, in 
legions, thousands, literally feeding voraciously, the 
surface of the bay presenting an animated and in- 
spiring spectacle when viewed through a powerful 
glass, as the ducks allernatelj'^ dive and dine. 
Mixed among them are the hundreds of hen bills, 
oftiraes such a nuisance to the ducker, impelling him 
to rout thcin out of the way frequently through the 
course of the day, for Ihey entice the redheads from 
the mute yet almost lifelike counterfeits, the wooden 
decoys. 
C)n .Monday, Dec. t, I got just twelve of these 
choice birds, and further east, four a,unncrs secured 
fifty. 
The element of luck enters very largely into the 
conditions of a ducking trip. One may be doomed 
to disappointment, trip after trip, and another, may 
have phenomenal success on'a-trip taken at a hazard. 
The redheads remain in the, bay .untih it , fr.eezes. over. 
"When the springtime comes".^you may get your fill 
of broadbill shooting, and though I -have not yet tried 
it in the spring, I doubt not that goose, redhead and 
an occasional canvasback will reward the persistent 
enthusiastic gunner. Van, 
In a North Dakota Camp. 
La Crosse, Wis., Dec. t2. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
T inclose an article describing the hunters in North Da-: 
kola. Knowing who the men are, I think it deserves a' 
place among the good things in Forest and Stream. 
H. E. West. 
The party of Grand Forks hunters who for the past 
two weeks have been hunting deer in the vicinity of Ft. 
Buford returned home yesterday after the most success- 
ful and pleasant experience they have ever had in that 
line. The party consisted of A. F. Turner, Stephen Col- 
lins, W. F. Perry, William Budge, E. C. Cooper and O. 
Overby. 
The hunting grounds were situated 20 miles from Bu- 
ford on the east side of the Yellowstone, and between 
tiiat river and the Little Missouri. The camp was 
completed when the main body of hunters arrived, and 
was complete in every respect. The services of two men 
were secured for the trip in addition to Cook LaTrace, 
and to the skill of the latter in dishing up swell grub, 
one of the chief pleasures of the trip is due. 
The river is still open and the party crossed on the 
ferry. There had been a good snowfall, just prior to the 
arrival of the party, and the hunting was good from the 
very start. Not a day passed during the entire stay in 
camp but what deer were sighted and good shooting 
secured by at least some members of the party. 
The same general plan was followed this year as last. 
Under the direction of Capt. Turner, each day's work 
was planned, and every move was made strictly accord- 
ing to Hoyle. To this concerted action the good results 
of the hunt are due in great measure. After the long 
tramp each day the hunters returned to camp in the even- 
ing with appetites that were whetted to a keen edge and 
the result of the efl^orts of LaTrace were assailed in a 
manner that Avould make a hotel keeper desire to close up 
shop and engage in some other business. 
One pleasant feature of the hunt was that every mem- 
ber of the party shot a deer. Two days before camp was 
broken every one had bagged a deer but E. C. Cooper. 
The bther meml)ers were anxious that he should drop at 
least one Inick even if the buck had to be lassooed in ad- 
vance and tied to a tree. 
On the day mentioned, Overby and one of the camp at- 
IncheS'Were heading for camp late in the afternoon, fol- 
lowing close to the river. About a mile from camp their 
attention was attracted by a splashing in the river, and 
on investigating they saw a fine buck struggling in the 
river. It had slipped on the ice and broke through, and 
as the bank was steep was unable to get out. It had evi- 
dently been struggling for some time, as it was about 
"all in" when they discovered it. A happy thought struck 
Overby. Here he thought was Cooper's chance. He sent 
hi? companion to a house near by, instructing him to 
return with a hay rope. Meanwhile he watched the deer. 
On the return of the man, the deer was caught, and 
securely tied to the rope, after which it was pulled from 
the river and tied to a tree near by. 
With all speed the two men then hastened to camp, 
and all but Cooper were put on to the deal. They told him 
that a deer had been seen in a certain neck of the woods, 
and the entire party volunteered to engage in a drive, and 
ir was planned that Cooper should station himself in a 
position that would insure him a shot. The plan was 
quickly executed, and Cooper was instructed to proceed 
to Avhere the deer was tied. Overby by a circuitous 
route hastened to where the deer was and concealed him- 
self under the river bank near the animal, and supplied 
himself with a few clubs to cast at the deer when Cooper 
approached. 
When the crackle of brush announced the approach 
of Cooper, Overby shied a club or two at the crippled deer, 
and it j umped to its feet and let a snort out that could 
be heard a mile. At this juncture Cooper sighted the 
deer, and with eyes sticking out of his head as though 
he was being run through a wringer feet first, he drew 
a bead on the animal, which was facing the other way, 
and pulled the trigger. 
Bravo! The buck fell with a sickening thud, and 
Cooper highly elated made a sprint for his fallen victim, 
closely watched by the balance of the party, all of whom 
were peering at him from behind trees at a distance. 
When Cooper reached the buck and found he was tied to 
a tree, he stood speechless. Then he peered about to 
see who was looking, and saw the entire party taking 
gapings at him. Budge was drawn up in a bunch con- 
\'ulscd with laughter. Overby's haw haws could have 
been heard a mile. Perry drew in his belt a notch to 
keep from bursting, Collins was roaring off in his corner 
and Turner was throwing a fit on the river bank. 
Cooper retained himself wonderfully, though great 
drops of sweat stood out on his forehead, as he realized 
that he was the victim of a plot. He studied for about 
JO niinutes before uttering a word, and then broke out 
with "Gentlemen, I'll buy." 
The incident furnished amusement to last the rest of 
ih':- irip, and Cooper has been explaining ever since his 
relurn that the party were all "agin him.'- 
Steve Collins was dubbed Daniel Boone by Cartwright, 
'uic r.iail carrier, but the manner in which he earned the 
lille is withheld from publication for the present at least. 
1 hj hunters devoured two deer in camp, and the 18 
01 hers will arrive by freight soon, and friends all over 
ihe city are very much interested in this part of the pro-' 
Kramme. Every member of the party avers that the trip 
v/as the best they ever enjoyed. Not a single accident 
mjirred the hunt, and all return in better health and bet- 
ter hMmor than when they left. 
In Other Days. 
ToPEKA, Kas., Dec. 15. — The picture of the boy, dog 
and two grouse, or "partridges," as we called them in 
niy boyhood days in Tompkins County, N. Y., brings 
up from memory's pages my first one, when a boy 10 
years; old, and I have never walked with the same pride 
Since the day I carried him home. I was on my way to 
look at some mink traps (two flat stones set with a figure 
4), but after I killed the grouse, the traps were forgot- 
ten, and I had to return home to show my game to my 
brothers and sisters. 
The birds were quite plentiful when I lived at Sabula, 
Iowa, in 1876 and 1877, along the 'bluffs of the Mississippi 
River, and when I think of the pheasants, as they were 
termed there, I remember going to the bluff one morn- 
ing with my dog and i6-gauge muzzleloading shotgun 
after squirrels. On loading the gun, at the foot of the 
bluff, I found I only had two loads of shot with me, 
and each of these killed a fine large fox-squiri-el, and 
then the dog made the greatest fuss I had ever known 
him to make. On looking him up I found him at the foot 
of a dead tree by an abandoned stone quarry, and perched 
above him were six pheasants. What a situation to be 
in ! I watched them for some minutes and then loaded 
the gun with small chips of stone from the quarry, and 
fired the first barrel without effect, and then with a more 
cjreful aim I fired at the same target, the lowest bird, with 
no other effect than to send the entire lot up over the 
bluff as fast as their wings could carry them. 
When I went after them later in the fall, in November, 
I would always find them in a mingled thicket of hazel 
brush and wild raspberry and blackberry canes, but it 
made no difference from which direction I would ap- 
proach the thicket, and start the dog in, they would always 
run to the opposite side of it before they would take 
wing. 
After half a dozen failures to get a shot, I took a friend 
with me one day, and leaving the dog with him with in- 
structions to start the grouse by sending the dog in from 
the east side when I signalled by a shout, I took my sta- 
tion over on a sloping bank of a gulch, up which their 
flight generally carried them about a half-mile from the 
thicket. Giving the signal he started the dog in and in a 
very few minutes I saw the first one start, and as it 
flew by me at a distance of about 30 yards, just over the 
tops of the young trees, it seemed to have entirely for- 
gotten its hurry, and flew along at a moderate gait as 
if bound upon a pleasure excursion, until the borrowed 
lo-gauge breechloader spoke, and the bird went out of the 
flying business. One after another came in quick succes- 
sion, to meet the same fate until five had fallen, and then 
from some cause that I never could reason out, either I 
or the gun got off, for the three that brought up the rear 
of the flight followed the same course and each one was 
saluted with two barrels, but I could see no effect of the 
shots except to wake up the bird fired at. 
Gathering up the five dead ones, I started back toward 
the thicket and met my friend, who asked, "What have 
you been shooting at? There was not one single pheasant 
in that whole thicket." But when I told of the eight 
the dog had driven out and showed the five saved and 
mourned the loos of the three, he only grunted, "Some 
folks would like the whole earth with a fence around it, 
and a man that hain't satisfied with five pheasants out 
of eight shots had never ought to get another one as 
long as he lives." 
We spent a good half day trying to relocate the other 
three, but could not, nor could we ever find another one 
in that thicket, and as I moved further west to the prairie 
section of the State in the spring I have never pointed a 
gun at a grouse since I missed the last one of the three, 
but I hope some time in the near future again to match 
my skill against their cunning "before I cross the range 
for good." W. F. Rightmire. 
Jersey Lightning Jtjstice. 
David R. Mofiit, a constable of Basking Ridge, N. L, 
received a complaint some days ago that some persons 
were breaking the law by shooting and hunting on Sun- 
day. He succeeded in finding the guilty person. Going 
to the quarry where the man was employed he was about 
to arrest him when the manager of the quarry asked him 
why he could not settle the matter over the telephone. 
The constabale called up Justice Bowers and briefly 
stated the case to the justice. When he had finished the 
justice said, "Fine 'im $20 and costs." The prisoner 
paid the fine to the State game warden and was released. 
