April 25, 1903.! 
^FOHEST .AND STREAM. 
828 
head and short nose coidd strike quick and hard, and 
that he would fight any other bear on three seconds' 
notice. From that time on Cyclone's position has been 
assured. He is treated with the respect that a good 
forearm inspires, but being really a fine spirited, digni- 
fied little grizzly, he attacks no one, and has never had 
a fight. 
"Speaking of young bears," said Mr. Hornaday, 
"the average citizen has all he wants of a pet bear 
cub in six months. In a year he is tired of it, and in 
eighteen months he is sick to death of it. When I 
was in the West I heard rather a good story in that 
connection: A gambler out in Denver, it appears, had 
a^ couple of cinnamon bears. When they were little 
he had lots of fun with them, but after they grew up 
he could not take care of them himself, and there was 
nothing to do but board them out. This cost him $ioo 
a year for each bear. By and by another gambler came 
along, saw the bears, and thought he would like to have 
some like that. 'How much will you take for them?' 
he asked. 'Three hundred dollars,' said the owner. 
They dickered for a while, and it ended in the sale of 
the two bears for one hundred dollars. After he had 
pocketed the money, the Denver man said, 'Bill, you're 
not so bright as I thought you. H you'd held on fifteen 
minutes more I'd have given you a hundred to take them 
bears.' 
J. PosTON, Jr. 
Wolf Traits. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I was much interested and edified by your intelligent 
correspondent's (G. B. G.) delineation in your issue of 
April 18 of wolves' behavior when at large in their native 
haunts, and not disturbed or frightened by man, or con-, 
scions of man's presence. The information which he 
gives of their antics, attitudes and idiosyncrasies covers 
a field of observation which was not studied as now in the 
days when I used to follow the western trails. At that 
time there were no Rudyard Kiplings or Seton Thomp- 
sons : no ''Jungle Books" or "Animals I Have Known." 
Trappers and hunters acquired a close familiarity with the 
habits of animals only so far as the knowledge served for 
their pursuit and capture. Exhibitions of wolves' dog- 
like behavior were seldom afforded to prairie travelers. 
Timber v/olves and coyotes both kept their distance in the 
day time, excepting a few of the latter which followed 
the wagons and were given names, and were individually 
recognized. Usually when seen they were loping off over 
the brown swales nearly of their own color, looking 
askance, with tails lowered in a sneaking way, "precisely 
as a frightened dog lowers his," to quote from G. B. G. 
Again, in another passage, he says of the coyote (prairie 
wolf), "it sneaks along with downcast mien and lowered 
tail," etc. 
So it would seem, I plead, that exception cannot fairly 
be taken by this observant naturalist to my original state- 
ment when differentiating the traits of dogs and wolves. 
But it was when we made camp in the evening or at 
dusk that we had the best opportunities to become ac- 
quainted with the "nature of the beast." Then they would 
gather in a circle around the seething pots, and sit on 
their haunches, and fidget and whine just like dogs 
(Canis latrans) ; and later on, at supper, when an occa- 
sional bone was thrown at them, there was a desperate 
scramble and no politeness wasted. This foolishness of 
baiting these nuisances with tidbits was not kept up many 
days. The mistake soon became uncomfortably apparent; 
for at night, just as the tenderfoot was Avooing sleep, the 
"varmints" would gather around the tent or wagon-tilt 
and crunch bones till we couldn't rest ! So the cook was 
instructed to carry the offal and remnants away out be- 
yond the limits. This was in the fifties. Years after, 
when I have scorned a tent and laid out with my back to 
the sod and my face to the stars, I have had the starve- 
ling scamps steal the shaganappi (raw hide) from under 
my pillow and eat that ! 
Memory plays a lively part in respect to the days when 
I went gipseying, not only in the country of the Platte 
and Arkansas and in Dakota and Minnesota, Idaho and 
Montana, but in the "Prairie Provinces" of the British 
Northwest, where buffalo grazed galore. In those flush 
times when "meat was a-runnin'," the wolves didn't carry 
their tails down, I'm sure. Charles Hallock. 
Goodnight Buffalo and Catalo. 
There have been so many conflicting reports of the 
success of Mr. Goodnight's enterprise that in crossing the 
Staked Plains of northern Texas last September, I 
stopped over a train to learn something definite about his 
herd of buffalo, and the catalo, as he calls the crosses be- 
tween the buffalo and polled angus cattle. From the- 
little station of Goodnight I walked a quarter of a mile 
back to the fine old ranch house surrounded with fruit 
and shade trees, an attractive spot in the big grassy 
plains. Mr. Goodnight said the buffalo were a couple of 
miles back in the pasture, so getting into his buggy we 
drove out through a big corral where nine beautiful elk 
that had been brought in the day before to be "gentled," 
merely looked up as we passed them, not half as wild as 
the range cattle usuallj' are. 
The small pasture in which the herd of fifty full-blood 
buffalo were kept contained a few thousand acres and 
Vvas inclosed with a barbed wire fence about seven or 
eight feet high, of thirteen wires. As we drove through 
it over the prairie we could hardly see that the grass 
had been eaten or trampled, and when we came to the 
herd of buffalo lying down or grazing along a gentle 
slope, there was not a fence in sight and it was easy to 
imagine that these were wild free buffalo of the plains. 
It did not seem so much as if they had been fenced in, as 
that the hunters had been fenced out. 
Mr. Goodnight said that all of the full-bloods were in 
this herd except the three largest old bulls that kept away 
in the corner of the pasture. The herd was a mixture of 
ccws, calves, yearlings, two-year-olds and a few fine full 
grown bulls, all in perfect health and fine condition. 
They were not as wild as the ordinary range cattle, and 
paid little attention to us. Mr. Goodnight said it was not 
safe to go among them on foot, but that they did not 
object to a man on horseback or in a wagon. I started 
up one of the best bulls and photographed him at twenty- 
feet from the buggy, and we were often closer to them. 
Unfortunately, I set my camera with too slow a speed for 
snap shots and spoiled all of my photographs. 
In this herd there were but two of the catalo, a three- 
quarters buffalo cow and her seven-eighths buffalo calf, 
and these kept at one side by themselves. The cow had 
much the build of a buffalo, but had slenderer horns, was 
a yellow brown color, and had long, straight instead of 
curly hair. The calf could not be told from a full-blood 
buffalo calf. Mr. Goodnight says the buffalo and catalo 
will not herd together, nor will the catalo herd with the 
cattle. Part of the seventy catalo of various grades were 
out in the big pasture, so I saw only a dozen in the field 
near the corral. These were half and three-quarters 
polled angus and kept apart by themselves, not mixing 
with the cattle in the same field, though not different from 
them in general appearance. 
The half-bloods were black or with only a trace of 
brownish; some with little crumply horns and others 
without horns. The high shoulders and light hind- 
quarters of the buffalo were noticeable in them, but not 
more- than a fair compromise' between the two parent 
species. 
The three-quarter polled angus are what especially in- 
terest Mr. Goodnight at present, and he thinks promise to 
develop into the finest breed of cattle in the world. They 
are black without hOrns, have the build and heavy form 
of the polled angus cattle and far exceed them in size and 
weight. Three yearlings standing together at one side 
were as large as any of the two-year-old polled angus in 
the herd near by, although they had been raised in the 
same pasture with no advantage on either side. The 
superiority of the grade, Mr. Goodnight says, is kept up 
to maturity, aud full grown steers weigh eighteen hundred 
pounds. 
By careful crossing he hopes to establish a permanent 
breed of very superior catalo of about the proportion of 
one-quarter buffalo to three-quarter polled angus, and his 
success seems almost a-ssured. The grade cows are said 
to breed freely, but most of the bulls are converted into 
steers for the market. 
Mr. Goodnight crosses his full-blood buffalo only from 
the bulls and keeps increasing his herd as fast as possi- 
ble. As they are worth something like a thousand dollars 
apiece, he naturally cannot afford to experiment with full- 
blood buffalo cows. He has no difficulty in making the 
desired crosses and both full-bloods and grades are per- 
fectly hardy. He has never lost any of his buffalo except 
by injury when shipping or handling them, and I see no 
possible danger to his herd except through in-breeding. 
Vernon Bailey. 
Chamberlain^s Nuttall's Manual. 
Several years ago we called attention to the enterprise 
of Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., of .Boston, in issuing an 
edition of Nuttall's Ornithology, and to their excellent 
judgment in choosing Mr. Montague Chamberlain to 
supervise the editorial work of the volume. At that 
time we said : 
"Of the earlier writings on American ornithology none 
have a greater charm than those of Thomas Nuttall. The 
result of his labors were modest by comparison with the 
elaborate productions of Wilson, Audubon and Bonaparte, 
but in the two little volumes which constitute his work 
there was careful study and painstaking care. Whether 
as botanist or ornithologist, Nuttall was a close observer, 
and he wrote with a deep feeling that appeals most 
strongly to all lovers of nature. He it was who first wrote 
a connected history of our birds in such forni that it was 
accessible to the general public. Other works on the 
subject were expensive and to be seen only in the 
libraries of the wealthy, but the two plain volumes of the 
'Manual' with their pleasing text and their simple yet 
truthful wood engravings, were within the reach of all. 
It was a popular hand-book of ornithology, and the charm 
of its style, as well as of its subject, at once secured for it 
a large share of the popular favor, so that after a few 
years it passed to a second edition." 
Messrs. Little, Brown & Co. have now issued a new edi- 
tion of this work, the title page of which reads, "A Popu- 
lar Hand-Book of the Birds of the United States and 
Canada, by Thomas Nuttall. New revised and annotated 
edition by Montague Chamberlain, with additions and no 
illustrations in color." 
So far as the type matter of this edition goes it is 
essentially similar to the earlier one in two volumes, 
which bore date 1891. ■ There are, however, some addi- 
tional notes on the species and twenty lithographic plates 
of dift'erent species, chiefly reductions from Audubon's 
plates, with a few from Wilson and others. Everything 
good that Avas said about the earlier edition thus applies 
to this one, and the colored plates are particularly good 
in color, most of them being exceedingly truthful and 
life-like. The two volumes of the old edition, printed on 
light weight paper, are bound up in one quite thick 
volume, and yet the book is not heavy to the hand, 
although containing about 900 pages. We note an appar- 
ent error or two in naming the species figured in colors, 
since figures 4 and 5 on plate 16 do not appear to be her- 
ring gulls; nor does figure on the same plate appear 
to be a Bonaparte's gull, though Audubon's figure and 
name are given. 
On the whole, Messrs. Little, Brown & Co. have per- 
formed good service in presenting again to bird lovers so 
charming and useful a book as this, to which the colored 
plates add a very great deal. The price of this edition is 
very modest, being only $3. 
«The Intelligence of "Wild Things," 
NoRTHWOoDj April i6.~Editor Forest and Stream: 
Permit me to thank Hermit for his article on "The Intel- 
ligence of the Wild Tliiugs." His straightforward state- 
ments will be approved by every observer of wild life who 
reads Forest and Stream. ' John R. Spears. 
One Way to Cast out Devils. 
Boston, Mass., April 20.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Who was the inspired idiot who proclaimed that if you 
take the piazza off your bird-hous? the English sparrows- 
forthwith will cease their troubling of the bluebird^ in- 
mates? If you know him, present to him my compli- 
ments; for, to quote a friend, "I am ever polite;" and tell 
him that it may be all right in his latitude, but in the 
neighborhood of Boston, where the sparrows as they . 
choose can make small gargoyles of themselves along the 
public library eaves or take a (lamp) post graduate 
course at Harvard University, they are altogether too well 
educated. Theoretically I thought so, for I found them 
nesting in a knothole in an apple tree not two inches wide, 
and oil the under side of a sawn off limb. Practically 
I know it, having believed too easily others knew best and 
removed the piazza in consequence. 
I set up a model tenement house in my garden; lofty 
within, with a half-chamber above, and two rooms back 
to back. In a day, two bluebird families entered into pos- 
session. In a week, a pair of sparrows began to inter- 
fere with the family on the most desirable, sunny side. 
So I took my saw to the piazzas and abolished them. 
1 forgot to add, the house has a gable roof with an attic 
open to the breezes from end to end, and thus in sunamer 
will be especially cool. 
Did the sparrows go? Not they! On the contrary, 
the bluebirds had to. on that side. Twice I rose in my 
wrath and my pajamas after dark and ripped out the 
sparrow nest bodily. Back they came, with the persist- 
ency well known as one of the attributes of devils, and 
built again. So, as my polite hints were thus ignored, 
and guns are tabooed, I set a flipflap wire mousetrap in 
the room after once more clearing out the straw; and 
next morning found it at the bottom of the pole with a 
very mad sparrow in it fast by the neck. "So much for 
Buckingham!" And the other imp has never come back 
after the first whirl of indignation. Once or twice I have 
caught the bluebirds clinging to the lower sill and looking 
in, as though they realized that some great tragedy had 
happened there; but not once have I seen them enter on 
that side, as yet. Still I am hoping. Meanwhile, I can com- 
mend that mousetrap for neatness and dispatch. I don't 
know it's name; but as it is a patented article your 
hardware man can find it doubtless. It has a flat bedplate, 
a^wire loop bent backward and caught down, and a food- 
plate. Its value lies in its small size and flatness. It 
could be slipped in most anywhere that it is wanted. 
J. P. T. 
P. S.— By the way, go easy on John Burroughs, boys I 
Remember, he is no longer young; and while, like others, 
he can now be caught napping, still he's probably learned 
and forgotten more than many of us young fry ever knew, 
and has helped greatly to spread abroad the gospel of out- 
door life and observation. 
Fouf-Legfged Fowls, 
Four-legged fowls are mentioned in the Bible — in 
Leviticus xi. 20! Which see. Charles Hallock. 
Swimming Squitteh, 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Early last Saturday morning, April 11, while out on 
the lake near this place in my canoe, I heard a splash 
near the shore one one side of an arm of the lake, and 
saw some animal that I thought was a muskrat swimming 
and headed for the other shore, which was some forty or' 
fifty yards distant. Turning the canoe in that direction 
I quietly paddled toward the animal, the head of which 
then looked very small for a muskrat's. As I got nearer 
It seemed more like a big watersnake than anything else, 
as it had quite an undulatory motion; but as it crawled 
ashore I found it to be a very large gray squirrel. After 
getting ashore it slowly crawled up the trunk of a nearby 
chestnut tree and dragging its tail. Then it crawled from 
limb to limb and slovv^ly j umped from one tree to another, 
without using its tail seemingly, until I lost sight of it. 
As it swam I noticed- that it dragged its tail all the while 
under the water, and when it got ashore it could have 
been caught very easily had one been there when it 
landed. 
As I was within perhaps ten feet of it when it got 
ashore, I had a good opportunity to observe its move- 
ments ; and since there has been quite a discussion of late 
in Forest and Stream in regard to gray squirrels crossing 
bodies of water, I was greatly interested; so much so that 
1_ took particular notice of this one's every move. I no- 
ticed that it SAvam as easily as a muskrat, and as the 
water was very cold— since there was a heavy frost the 
night before— I came to the conclusion that that branch 
01 the squirrel family is accustomed to swimming in cold 
weather, and as I saw nothing that compelled it to swim 
across, it showed conclusively that gray squirrels can 
take to the water and handle themselves easily in it when 
they choose to do so, or when necessary. 
_ About gray squirrels migrating, I have never seen'the.Ti 
GO It, but last year my brother up in Connecticut told 'me 
that once some three years since when he was in the 
woods he saw scores of them, all big ones, going through 
the woods all in the same direction, and as he was in the 
midst of them, they would turn a little away from him on 
each side and continue on their way, showing but little 
fear. He said it surprised him greatly to see so many 
of them at the same time all going the one way. 
A. L. L. 
AsBURV Park, N. J. 
One Buffalo the Less. 
America's decimating colony of buffalo has lost an- 
other chief. "Ben Tillman," the prize bull in the herd in 
Pawnee Bill's Indian show, yesterday bit the dust, dyino- 
with honor m a fatal battle with a rival of his own fierce 
breed. The fight took place in Pawnee Bill's winter 
quarters m Carnegie. "Ben" weighed 2,100 pounds and 
was valued at $5,000.— Pittsburg (Pa.) Gazette, April 14. 
Misser— "Is there anything I ought to do while waiting 
for the bird to rise?" 
Farmer— "Yep ; you might as well hand me $10 in ad- 
vance fur shootm' the dog."— Washington Evening Star. 
All communications intended for Forest and Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co 
New York, aad not to aay individual connected with the paper. ' 
