Marcs si, 1953.^ 
FOREST ^ AKD _ STREAM, 
£4d 
Ti-ri-'i iiiii 
people cannot be convinced that such a thing really 
takes place every year. The axis deer buck sheds his 
in January, and the new horns in the velvet are already 
nearly six inches long. The mule deer come next, 
and the two big elk lost theirs only a short time ago. 
The horn is absorbed at the base, and finally drops 
or is knocked off, exactly like a small boy's "loose 
teeth." It is amusing to see the care with which, after 
losing one horn, a buck lies down, always with the re- 
maining antler underneath, as if afraid that the weight 
would twist his neck if he did not. 
All things considered, the biggest baby among all 
the wild animals at the Zoo is an infant that is not an 
mammal at all, but a reptile, one of the herd of testudo, 
or giant tortoises, natives of the Galapagos Islands. 
With his three companions, he forms one of the few 
relics w^e have left to us of the life of the Pliocene age; 
these tortoises are the sole survivors of the prehistoric 
reptiles. The young testudo is the smallest in the herd; 
he weighs only 66 pounds. His age is not positively 
known, but it is variously estimated that he must have 
seen from eighty to one hundred years. That seems 
rather old for a baby, but he is a child in arms com- 
pared with one of his relatives, a Testudo vicina, who 
carries on her broad back (it is 4 feet 3 inches by 4 
feet 7 inches) the weight of something over four cen- 
turies, and who tips the scale at 325 pounds. 
There will be more babies in the park presently, but 
of course that is always a delicate subject to. talk 
about until they actually arrive. 
Sq«itfel Mig^fations* 
Ovid, N. Y., March 18. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
In regard to the discussion recently running anent squir- 
rels, my father, whose statements about matters of this 
sort may not be questioned, assures me that he saw a 
squirrel migration nearly seventy years ago in Ohio. He 
wishes me to correct the statement made by at least one 
disputant that squirrels in swimming keep their tails 
under water. In the migration referred to vast numbers 
of gray and black squirrels were crossing the Cuyahoga 
River, which at that place was about one hundred yards 
wide. The animals were thick in the tree tops along the 
bank, often clinging to the branches overhanging the 
stream, as if contemplating the trip. When the men and 
boys, undoubtedly with sacks, approached the trees, no 
more hesitation was shown, but with mighty leap_ and 
outstretched limbs the squirrel would sail far out, striking 
flat, and then, with tail upraised, would strike bravely 
out for the farther shore. 
Thus is the Sander's Reader of boyhood days vindi- 
cated. It is not to be doubted that the squirrels would 
mount a piece of bark and, as the tail of this animal is 
usually hoisted, sail easily over. Away with the doubters 
of those splendid stories in old Sander's ! We never get 
in life such thrills and keen hair-raising enjoyment as 
imagination gave on the initial-carved seat in the back 
row. 
Nor do we doubt that, in swimming wider rivers than 
the Cuyahoga, the tail is under water. The squirrel gen- 
erally knoAVS what he ought to do. That flaunting un- 
dulatory, propeller, rail-fence motion of the tail well 
known to hunters, would easily assist the crossing. There- 
fore Col. Bobo, Didymus and Sander's are all correct. 
Q. B. D. B. E. BiRGE. 
Alexander Wilson relates in his American Ornithology, 
in the chapter on the white-headed or bald eagle: "In 
one of those partial migrations of tree squirrels that 
sometimes take place in our western forests, many thou- 
sands of them were drowned in attempting to cross the 
Ohio; and at a certain place, not far from Wheeling, a 
prodigious number of their dead bodies were floated to 
the shore by an eddy. Here the vultures assembled in 
great force, and had regaled themselves for some time, 
when a bald eagle made his appearance, and took sole 
possession of the premises, keeping the whole flock of vul- 
tures at their proper distance for several days. . . In hard 
times, when food happens to be scarce, should he acci- 
dentally meet with one of these who has its craw crammed 
with carrion, he attacks it fiercely in the air ; the cowardly 
vulture instantly disgorges, and the delicious contents are 
snatched up by the eagle before they reach the ground." 
Pythons and Buffalo* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The present might be termed the "age of fiction" 
in popular natural history as well as in general litera- 
ture, citing as evidence thereof more than one recent 
publication, offering to readers uncritical in zoology 
life histories and fantasies in animal psychology, abso- 
lutely without existence except in the sense of the late 
Prof. Clifford's "ejects." These have been fully dealt 
with by Mr. John Burroughs, in the March Atlantic, 
and need no further attention at present. 
But the case is different when preposterous non- 
sense gravely stated in a pseudo-scientific manner as 
facts of observation, is given the cachet of publication 
in standard journals. These should be spoken of with- 
out delay in good round terms. 
Forest and Stream of this week, page 232, contains 
a quotation from remarks recently made before a num- 
ber of intelligent gentlemen, at a dinner in Boston, by 
R. L. Garner, learned in Simian phonetics, to the ef- 
fect that in certain portions of Africa, unspecified, but 
visited by him, the pythons prey upon buffalo. 
Now, let it be said at once, that as far as is known — ■ 
unless it be to Mr. Garner — Africa contains but three 
species of python, two of which are of small size and 
perhaps never exceed six or seven feet in length. The 
other, P. sebce, is one of the larger species, but is not 
known to the unemotional tape line of a length greater 
than about twenty-five feet as a very unusual extreme. 
A large Belgian hare, or a chicken of such a breed 
as the Dorking, about meets the ordinar}^ capacity of 
a twenty-foot python at one swallow, and the addition 
of four or five feet to the snake's length might increase 
its gape enough to take in an animal of twice that size, 
though I doubt it. So even if Mr. Garner's buffaloes 
be limited to the newly born calf, even of the relatively 
small species of the West Coast, the absurdity of the 
statement appears to be clear enough without further 
discussion. 
It would be interesting, however, to know if Mr. 
Garner got this tale from some loquacious gorilla. 
But a more tragic occurrence, seemingly, of human 
authority is with dramatic skill reserved to the last: 
"* * * after one of my hunting men had been swal- 
lowed by a python it gave me a creepy feeling. * * 
Quite true; so it should! But Mr. Garner owes it to 
ethnology to mention just where in the dark continent 
this tragedy occurred, for there, at least, there be 
dwarfs beside whom the little men of the Semliki forest 
are as giants. Arthur Erwin Brown. 
Zoological Gardens, Philadelphia, March 19. 
Proijrietors of shooting resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Fokest and St&kau. 
Some Sportsmen I Have Known. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have been greatly interested in the reminiscences of 
that good sportsman, R. B. Roosevelt, recently published 
in Forest and StreaMj and wish that I might add some- 
thing to them. 
I did not migrate from the rock ribbed hills of dear old 
Madison county — the home of the bushy tails, or the 
clover meadows beneath where congregated the whistling 
woodchuck — until the tocsin of disagreement with our 
southern sportsmen came to our ears. Not until 1861 did 
I become a resident of New York City. A few years 
later I drifted to Jersey City, and perhaps a few reminis- 
cences of those times and mention of some of the old 
sportsmen of those days — i. e., the latter part of the 6o's 
and early 70's — might be interesting to your readers. 
I always want to add my quota to your great paper. 
On becoming domiciled on Jersey City Heights, I early 
made the acqu.aintance of a Mr. Lattimer, of, I think, 78 
Murray street, New York City, a near neighbor who had 
a good dog — though jiot as good as mine, he often said. 
Two or three times a week the rising sun would find us 
together on the Hackensack meadows. 
We invariably found a couple of woodcock at a pond 
hole forenenst where now is the old watch factory. 
Further down toward the meadows was another hole, and 
we would scoop in a couple more. There, on the border 
of the meadow near the railroad track, we were almost 
sure to find another couple. In a couple of hours we 
have bagged from eight to a dozen of these nice game 
birds and been home on the heights before or shortly 
after 8 A. M. Sometimes we made a day or half a day 
of it, and good bags were the result, for there were birds 
there then on the Hackensack meadows. 
Li our peregrinations we often came across other 
sportsmen — some celebrated in the annals of shooting lore. 
There was Uncle Billy Hughes, "Old Reliable No. i." 
Big, rollicking Sam Castle, of Newark; Richard Dyne— 
our Dick — three of the most reliable and successful 
brush shots in the three States of New York, Pennsyl- 
vania and New Jersey. We will except none, for we have 
tramped up the mountain side and shot with them, and 
Canadensis and the Pocono Mountains will bear testimony 
to their accuracy and reliability in securing that wariest 
of the game birds of the world — the ruffed grouse. Then 
there was Bill Siegler, "Old Reliable No. 2," of Mont- 
clair; Al Heritage, "Old South Paw," by which name he 
is known wnerever sportsmen congregate from Maine to 
California. He shoots left-handed and straddles wide 
when he shoots. Then comes old Oscar Sanford, a 
veteran of the fifties, I was going to say. A good shot, 
but more celebrated as a dog trainer for more wealthy 
sportsmen. He had a half way house and kennels on the 
Newark turnpike — "Old Mosquito Tavern," it was called, 
and sometimes he had as high as from forty to sixty dogs 
in training, many of exceeding fine strain and pedigree. 
But old Oscar essayed to cross the railroad once too 
often and was killed, I think in the early seventies, nearly 
opposite the watch facto^J^ Another dog trainer and 
sportsman was Miles Johnson, lower down the State. 
He must be still alive, but I opine he has laid aside his 
breechloader; but he can give the youngster good points 
yet. Jack and Bill Taylor knew the Hackensack meadows 
well. Not a foot of them that they have not trod, and 
with good results. Gen. Heber Breintnall, of Newark, 
every inch a soldier and equally a gentleman sports- 
man, is noAV very deservedly a high cockalorum in the 
mihtia of the State. C. M. Hedden, and Doctor Pindell 
lived in Newark, but if they wanted snipe they had to 
come to the Hackensack meadows for them in those days, 
and they generally got their share. In later days came 
John Henry Cutwater, a good trap and field shot and 
good fellow, and the Von Lengerkes, Justus, Herman 
and Oswald or Oscar, great snipers all of them. Dr. P. 
W. Levering, of Jersey City Heights, the noblest Roman 
of them all. Ah ! the many sunny hours and some dark 
dcys, for that matter, we have trod the brakes or climbed 
the rugged hillside with the genial Doctor. He is one 
of those mortals that is good to all and don't know how 
to think, less say a word to or of anybody. We are 
indebted to him for many happy hours in the field and 
elsewhere. 
Of the well known shots of these days, Uncle Billy 
Hughes, one of the most reliable shots, a genial, square 
man in all walks of life, and beloved by all that know 
him; Oscar Sanford, Jack Taylor, the pigeon shot. Dr. 
Pindel and Thomas Harrison, ex-Mayor of old Hudson 
City, not such a brilliant shot, but a thoroughly good all 
aronnd sportsman, have all gone to the great meadows 
beyond. 
in the latter part of the sixties We used to get some 
good woodcock shooting down Jamaica way. It was there 
that one October day Lattimer and I got nineteen fine 
fall birds, and we were feeling pretty well over our bag 
when, about 4 P. M., we stopped at a farm house for a 
drink of water. The farmer now accosted us: "Heerd 
you firing down in my swamps. What ye shoot?" With 
some complacency I pulled out one of our birds. "Huh !" 
said he, "blind snipe, eh? Why, ray man killed hull lot 
o them ere last night. Here they be, back of the Well 
Curb; has 'em laid out; going to take 'em to railroad con- 
ductors — gets 20 cents apiece for 'em !" 
And as sure as you live, there, laid out smoothly on 
their backs, were twenty-four plump birds. How did he 
get them? "There comes John," as a colored man came 
up the lane driving the cows. I hailed him : "John, did 
you kill these?" "Yas, sir." "What with?" He stepped 
to the barn door and, reaching around, brought out a 
gun. An old musket of about 20 or n'^t to exceed 24-inch 
barrel and inch nozzle. "How did you shoot them with 
this instrument?" "Stood up in the middle ob de road, 
sah, and shot 'era as they flewed over one side or t'other." 
There was a full moon, and this darkey would drop 
these birds in the middle of the road with his scatter gun. 
It struck us, as woodcock were worth from $1 to $2 or 
$2.50 a pair in the market, that the conductor was having a 
good thing of it 
It was early in the seventies when Major Beckwith, a 
gallant ex-soldier and a boyhood companion, and I, in 
pursuit of pastures new, stumbled on Recorder Hackett's 
great game corner that he had kept so carefully from all 
save a chosen few— Canoe place and Ponquogue on Shin- 
iiecock Bay. Here we found what we wanted— geese, red- 
heads and blackheads. The natives called them broad- 
bill. With that chief of baymen. Bill Lane, we got seven 
black brant the first day. I had killed the white brant, or 
Mexican goose, out West, but not half as good a bird, 
either to shoot or for the table. We fastened on Lane, 
and many trips we made over that Long Island road. 
One day we shot out of a battery, and Lane and his 
son Charlie gathered in 87 broadbill shot by Tacobstaff 
after 2 P. M. Many days of good goose shooting we had. 
Lane had a flock of 35 trained wild geese, and a gander. 
Old Pomp," who knew as much or more than a dog, 
would see birds flying long before we could and set up his 
honkmg and seemed to take ecstatic delight in drawing 
down his fellow bipeds to destruction. 
With Captain Ruben Johnson, a Mr. Munday, and two 
others whose names I do not recall, we bagged in three 
days shooting 41 geese. 
Those were great days on Tiana Bay and vicinity; but 
have they not been told and retold in the chronicles of 
Forest and Stream? I have not been down there in 
years, but I am told that there is some broadbill shootinc^ 
in the season yet and that bay snipe at the right time is 
almost as good as ever. Lane has long ago retired and is 
living (as last I heard) resting on the hurels he has won 
as the best shot, the most honest and reliable of all bay- 
men on the coast. 
That was a capital article of. R. B. Roosevelt's, and you 
won t get any to beat or even equal it. He must have 
had lots of good, solid, genuine fun, and how well he 
tells It. I would like to meet him. I saw him once 
across the table when he presided over a meeting of 
sportsmen many j^ears ago, but I have read his works with 
great interest, "The Game Birds of the North," etc. He 
knows what he is talking about, and says it well. But I 
am getting garrulous. Jacobstaff. 
Spring Duck Shooting. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I will esteem it a great favor if you will allow me the 
space to make a few comments on the subject of the 
Brown bill, to prohibit the spring shooting of wildfowl 
in this State. The bill seems to have been hurriedly 
drawn, and while it may be just what is needed to 
benefit the duck shooting in the upper part of the State, 
It does not fit the conditions prevaiHng in Long Island 
waters. 
The Great South Bay, of Long Island, covers more 
than one-half the duck shooting waters of the State; 
broadbil s, a smaller proportion of redheads, with some 
sea ducks, being the fowl represented. The ducks 
arrive every fall between Oct. i and 15. The law of 
several years ago, and before, allowed the shooting of 
wndfowl from batteries on and after Oct. i; but it was 
found that this date was too early, as the ducks were 
never in the bay in large enough numbers to warrant 
the use of a battery, and the few that did arrive were 
broken up and driven off the flats by gunning parties 
from New York and elsewhere. These parties, fre- 
quently having made their arrangements with their 
battery men the previous season, and anxious to get 
the first chance at the ducks, insisted on going out 
and would not take the advice of their gunners and de- 
fer their visit until later in the season. 
The battery men, recognizing the fact that something 
should be done to preserve the shooting, succeeded, 
through Mr. Regis H. Post, our representative fo^ 
butfolk county, in getting the opening of the season 
for battery shooting fixed at Oct. 20. The result has 
been the finest duck shooting we have had in years 
Now the Brown bill proposes to make the opening of 
the season Sept. 15, which is three weeks before the 
arrival of the ducks, which would practically put us 
back on our old basis, and of course with the same 
unsatisfactory results. 
Broadbills have, if anything, increased in numbers in 
the bay. Redheads are scarcer, the result, as you 
know of excessive shooting in Southern waters, as 
they have never been killed in any large numbers in 
the South Bay. 
Another thing I wish to call attention to is the fact 
that a portion of the South Bay, eighteen miles long 
by Its full width, IS owned and controlled, one-half 
by the town of Brookhaven, one-half by the Smith 
heirs. Most of the best gunning ground is embraced 
within this section of the bay. A license to shoot in 
Brookhaven waters costs $20; a license to shoot in 
waters controlled by the Smith heirs, $15. Total cost 
to battery gunners, $35. Every year the bay is frozen 
over by Christmas. This winter it closed about Dec 
17, and was not clear of ice again until the last of Feb- 
ruary. This year up to Jan. i, we had about twenty- 
six days on which a battery could be used Some 
seasons there might be a few more days, but verv 
seldom. ■ Now, I doubt if that number of days' shooting 
would make it pay any battery gmmer to take out even 
one license. Ijefer to the battery gunners who make 
a business of faking parties out. If they give un a 
splendid piece of duck shootmg country will be closed 
