jvNE 20, 1903. 
488 
bobbing serenely on the water. The net had parted 
somewhere, and they all had drifted together, so at a 
distance they represented exactly a flock of ducks. 
How the Veteran laughed over the joke when the 
Buttercup steamed up and how mortified and cha- 
grined Al and I felt Over thb whole performance. 
"But 1 was sure they werfe ducks myself," said the 
Veteran, after guying Al on the bell-ringing episodte, 
*'and until we came closer they looked just like a bunch 
of coot. Anyway, we'll take a sail. down thfe river and 
maybe you'll get another chance at some real ducks." 
For a couple of miles we continued south, aild then 
turning, came up the river near the east shore. 
"What 'are those?" asked Al, all at once. 
"Three black ducks," answered the Veteran- prompt- 
ly, for he can always tell what species a duck is, even if 
half a mile distant. "Now is your chance," he said, 
turning to me, "so go ahead.'* 
Pushing ofT the duck boat, we were soon moving up 
quickly with the tide on the "duskies," who all ap- 
peared asleep; very dififerent from their usual wide 
awake mood. . About, thirty or forty yards distant I 
kneeled up in the boat and gave them the right-hand 
barrel in the water. Only one succumbed to the shot, 
but I was lucky in knocking down a second bird out 
of the air as he jumped, while the third, unscathed, 
sped of? like a buUet. 
They were a nice, plump pair, and the first black 
ducks, excepting one, I had ever killed. Boarding the 
launch, we headed toward shore, for it was growing 
late and the air chilly. Our bag consisted of eight 
ruddy ducks, a pair of black ducks, one sea-crow and 
a pail full of perch, porgies, small bass, eels and crabs. 
Such little trips on the river are very pleasant, and, 
although this day was an especially lucky one, the 
fascination of cruising about in search of game and 
(ish never decreases. And then, October is the sports- 
man's month, and whether it be fruitful or not, I am 
sure is always looked forward to and enjoyed by those 
who love to fish and shoot. Camiixa. 
Adirondack Notes. 
The forest fires have not been overstated in the daily 
papers I have seen. Smoke like a pall of darkness has 
many days overhung the lakes so that one could not see 
a half mile distinctly — sometimes not a quarter. Some- 
times a yellow cast was given to everything, as though 
all nature had a bad attack of jaundice. One day last 
week burned leaves filled the air and fell like snowflakes. 
They were crisped, not crumbled, and had come for miles 
upon the wind. Yesterday as people returned from church 
they noticed that the air was delightfully clear; all felt 
that the long-wished-for change had come, and toward 
night a little rain fell; several showers came during the 
night; more this morning, and glad thankfulness seems 
written on every face one meets. 
Many believe that a large number of the fires have been 
accidental, but that another large number have been pur- 
posely set. One case was stated to the writer as a sample 
and as follows : The poor people of a certain community 
cut wood on State land last winter and were fined for it. 
Partly to "get even" and partly to earn money to make 
up the fines by fighting fire, the poachers were believed to 
have set the fires. I have heard men say, "Fighting fire 
is good business. It is twenty cents an hour and found 
from the time you leave home till you get back again." 
It is an observed fact that some sets of men work hard 
and earnestly while other sets "sojer" as if to keep up 
the job. One such set was promptly discharged by the 
fire warden when he learned the facts. 
A gentlieman reported to me the following which came 
under his observation in the vicinity of North Creek. A 
preserve and club house being in danger, a man was sent 
to hire help and fight the fire. Next day a hotel lounger 
was heard to say : "I would have gone with that man if 
I had known it, but I would have wanted $5 a day in ad- 
vance. And when I got there, do you know what I would 
have done? I would not have fought the fires, but set 
more." He explained his position by finding fault with 
"the rich men who buy up our lands and then won't let us 
hunt on them." This is the spirit of ignorant prejudice 
akin to that governing so many strikes. I cannot believe 
it is so widespread here as among the labor unions, for 
many of the Adirondackers share the nobility of their 
native hills. Where the spirit described is found it is 
most likely to be — as among the labor unions— in a for- 
eign importation. 
Fishing has been unusually good, I am told, in both 
lake and stream. Poor places have so improved that one 
can scarcely go amiss for a fair day's sport. Cedar River, 
in particular, has afforded many good catches of trout. 
Game is said to have wintered well. The elk given by 
Mr, Whitney have been seen frequently, and deer are said 
to be abundant. Some fishermen are already planning to 
return for the fall hunting. A recent tour of inspection 
showed much more "sign" than previous years on the 
same ground. 
An Old Tficfc Well Done. 
Recently when driving along a mountain road a brood 
of ducklings were surprised in the ditch by the road. The 
mother, a sheldrake, immediately took the road ahead of 
the team, and so thoroughly simulated a broken leg that 
at first I thought it was reality. A broken wing also 
seemed in evidence. I Avas familiar with the partridge 
trick, but did not know ducks were up to the same one; 
hence I was more easily deceived. After leading us, as 
she supposed, a dozen rods or more and around a turn 
in the road away from her brood, the old duck suddenly 
recovered, took wing, and describing a wide circle, re- 
turned to her little ones. It was certainly well done and 
worthy the mother instinct which prompted it. Speaking 
of the occurrence to a Utica gentleman one day, he said 
he once had a similar experience. Coming suddenly on a 
brood of sheldrakes in a pond hole the mother skittered 
as if with broken wing all over the surface of the water, 
making a great splashing until her ducklings were hidden, 
and then, calmly perching in full view, looked around as 
if to say: "I haven't any ducks." The Utica man had 
never heard anything like it till I told him my experience. 
Is such practice common among ducks ? I am not a duck 
hunter, but would like to know. 
Please give ray compliments to Mr. Emerson Carney, 
whose articles I enjoy, and thank him for his explanation 
(in your last issue) about the absence of deciduous trees 
from his hunting grounds. My observations of deer have 
been in the Adirondacks, where deciduous trees abound, 
also undergrowth of many kinds. No doubt this largely 
accounts for the difference in our experience. 
Juvenal. 
TrtE AoiRONDAtKS, JUiie f<. 
Experiments with Chickens, 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
1 take it that your esteemed correspondent Hermit 
is desirous of the fullest light upon the subject that he 
has agitated in your counins, and it is, therefore, with 
no intention of baiting him that I indulge in further 
criticism of his outgivings. In your issue of June 6 
he extends ironical congratulations to Mr. E. P. 
Jaques "because of his peculiar breed of chicks that 
will pick up crumbs as soon as they are out of the 
shell," and intimates further that they are the only 
chicks in the world that do so. I admit that these 
Kansas chicks are marvels of precocity, but I am sen- 
sible that young America is little trammeled by tradi- 
tion, that it is disposed to hold itself independent of 
precedent, and chicks as well as children, in the in- 
vigorating air of the Western prairie, may be stimu- 
lated into an exceptional forwardness of development. 
Be that as it may, the evidence is conclusive that the 
young of the feathered tribe possess, upon their entry 
into the world, a stock of inherited instincts amply 
qualifying them for the battle of life. 
Nigh half a century ago Douglas Spalding, an Eng- 
lish investigator, subjected the young of various crea- 
tures to a minute and painstaking course of observa- 
tion and experiment, the results of which he subse- 
quently published. Prior tr such exposition it was a 
belief current among into .gent peopk that chicks 
picked up crumbs and followed the call of the mother 
immediately upon their leaving the shell. He experi- 
mented with over fifty chicks, "but he states not one 
upon emergence was in a condition to manifest an 
acquaintance with the qualities of the outer world. On 
leaving the shell they are wet and helpless, they strug- 
gle with their legs, wings and necks, but are unable 
to stand or hold up their heads. Soon, however, they 
may be distinctly seen and felt pressing against and 
endeavoring to keep in contact with any warm object. 
They advance very rapidly. I have seen tliem hold up 
their heads well, pick at objects and attempt to dress 
their wings when only four or five hours old." To de- 
terrnine that the chicks acquire their poswer of inter- 
preting instinctively what they see and hear, Spalding 
states "as soon as the little prisoners -had begun to 
break their way out I removed a piece of the shell, and. 
before they had opened their eyes, drew over their 
heads little hoods, which, being furnished watih an elastic 
thread at the lower end, fitted close around thear 
necks." In some cases the material was thick enough 
to impose total darkness upon the wearers.; in other 
instances it was semi-transparent. In this state of 
obvious blindness they were kept from one to three 
days. When unhooded the chicks' heharnQx -was con- 
clusive against the theory that the pverception of dis- 
tance and direction by the eye are the resullt of experi- 
ence or of associations formed in the outset of each 
individual life. Often the chicks, at the end ©f two min- 
utes, followed with their eyes the mOvemenits ^of . crawl- 
ing insects. In from two to fifteen minutes they 
would peck at some minute speck, and appeared to 
possess an innate perception of distance, for,-as a rule, 
they seemed to hit the object, however small, at which 
they struck. Without any opportunity of imitation, 
when kept quite isolated from their kind, chicks be- 
gan to scrape when from two to six days old. In view 
of Hermit's adverse contention, I submit the follow- 
ing account of one of Spalding's experiments: 
A chick that was unhooded when three days old 
remained for six minutes chirping and,, looking about, 
at the end of that time it followed with its head and 
eyes the movements of a fly twelve inches distant, at 
ten minutes it made a peck at its toes, and the next 
instant it made a vigorous dash at the fly, whidh had 
come within reach of its neck, and seized arid swal- 
lowed it at the first stroke. For seven minutes more 
it sat calling and looking about it, when a .hive bee 
coming sufiidently near, was seized at a dart, .and 
thrown some distance much disabled. For twenty min- 
uates it sat upon the spot where its eyes had been un- 
veiled, without attempting to walk a step. It was then 
placed on rough ground within sight and call of a hen 
caring for a brood of its own age. After standing 
chirping for about a minute, it started off for the hen, 
displaying as keen a perception of the nature and quali- 
ties of the outer world as it was ever likely to possess 
in after life. It never required to knock its head against 
a stone to discover that there was no road that way. 
It leaped over the smaller obstacles that lay in its 
path and ran around the larger, reaching the mother 
in as nearly a straight line as the nature of the ground 
would permit. This, let it be remembered, was the first 
time that it had ever walked by sight. 
Hermit should not shut his eyes to the undeniable 
fact that the young of all animal Idnd begin life fully 
equipped to cope with its exigencies. Mature and care 
are, of course, essential, but the appearance of maternal 
instruction proves nothing, it affords no evidence that 
a subsequent behavior of the young conforming to such 
teaching is a result thereof. So long as similar mani- 
festations are spontaneously evolved, it must be con- 
ceded that the so-called schooling is a mere stimulation 
of dormant faculties into active being. For instance. 
Hermit entertains the readers of Forest anc Stream 
with a graphic recital of his boyish . observatic a of a 
mother cat's apparently sedulouS' feffoi't to teach her 
kittens how to catch and kill mice, .-and assumes that 
such instruction is a necessary feature >©f feline train- 
ing. No weightier authority on this point can be ad- 
duced than Darwin, who says: "Let any one * * * 
give a mouse to a kitten taken early from its mother 
and which has never seen one and observe how soon 
the kitten growls with hair erect." Anyone can make 
this conclusive experiment, bearing in mind that the 
kitten chosen should be of proper stock. Some cats 
eagerly take to mousing,, others manifest entire indif- 
ference to the sport. Of course, in a wild state, the lat- 
ter would be speedily eliminated, but they exist because 
man's arbitrai-y selection is not that of nature. 
A. H. GOURAUD. 
. Brooklyn, N. Y. 
The Whippoorwiirs Cry, 
WiLLiAMSPORT, Pa,, June 12. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Though Mr. L. F. Brown appears to be certain 
that only the female whippoorwill, and not the male, is 
the singer of the night, I will state my own experience 
to the contrary. 
For fifty years I have lived in a locality Which, within 
a "few hundred yards, is bordered by mountainous woods. 
In these woods we ...ean hear this bird from May to 
August, and occasionally to September, and not only a 
few at a time, biat hundreds of them during warm nights. 
Many were the whippoorwills I collected during a num- 
ber of years as specimens for ornithological friends, who 
would exchange with me for other desirable specimens. 
My method to secin-e the bird has always been to fol- 
low up the bird, guided by its song, and though it was 
generally too dark in the woods to see the bird on a log, 
low limb, stone or on the ground, the w'hite markings on 
throat and tail of tlie male singer made it possible for 
nie to see the rising bird, which my quick snapshot gen- 
erally brought to the ground. A small piece of sperm 
candle helped me to find the bird with the white mark- 
ings and prevented me from reaching into the ready fangs 
of ■ a possible rattlesnake. 
In eveiy instance the rising bird was a male, as a female 
could not be seen, except when it appeared on a limb out- 
lined against the sky and near the place where the male 
w as in song; it then uttered a sihort call, but one at a 
time. 
The above statement is my experience, but T would 
not say that the female does not sing, or cannot sing. 
The female oriole wi\] answer the call of the male with 
notes often nearly as full of music as those of its mate. 
The female of the hooded warbler will answer the song 
of the male almost constantly, except when sitting on its 
nest, but the song consists of a few iiiotes only. 
What Beavers Can Do. 
Capt. George Van Felson, secretary of the Tourillj 
Fish and Game Club, whose territory lies in the Lake St. 
John country, Saguenay, Quebec, makes a remarkabje 
statement about the ravages of beavers in his annual re- 
port for 1903. Speaking of the unprecedented increase 
of these aniriials on the club property, he says: 
"This year the increase has become alarming, and to- 
day innumerable lakes, streams, and rivers have be^n 
dammed by these hard-working and interesting ar^imals. 
I may note a few remarkable cases, such as the damn|ing 
of Lake George. This large sheet of water, twelve rjiiles 
in circumference, h.^s been raised four feet above its ordi- 
nary level. Tourilli River has been dammed at three dif- 
ferent points, at one place over 120 feet wide. On tjie 
west branch and many other points small streams K^ye 
been dammed and our trails swamped. A large .number 
o.f small lakes heretofore offering excellent feeding 
gtounds for caribou now present glistening sheets ■ of 
water in lieu of long grass." 
The editors of Forest and Stream beg to acknowledge 
in behalf lOf Mr. Charles Hallock, and at his request, a re- 
peated iiiiwitation from the honorary president (Com. G. 
U. Gregory!) and Secretary Van Felson, to be the club's 
guest_ this season. From all accounts the fishing and 
shooting on this exceptional preserve is not surpassed on 
earth, and only equaled in the mystical happy hunting 
grounds. 
}mn^ _^»g Hud 0ttn. 
Proijrietors of ghootiog Msoiits srill find it profitable to advertise 
them in Foeksit and Stssau. 
Take the Boy Along. 
Editor Forest md Stream: 
r^ij^'ng. Six days ago occurred the most disas- 
trous flood that was ever known on the upper Cotton- 
wood. Bridges are torn out and none of the roads are 
passable more than a mile or so m any direction. Rail- 
roads are at a standstill with no mails or news from any- 
where. It has rained all spring to that extent that farmers 
could do little toward putting in crops, and that little is 
310W washed away. Suice the flood it has rained six solid 
days and nights a cold drizzle, with the temperature at 
44 above zero. 
We have a vague suspicion that other parts of the 
world are more or Jess afflicted, but we have not heard 
from our nearest neighbor for four days. Put to our ut- 
most for something to do, we decided to write Forest 
AND Stream of an event in the hunting line that occurred 
some months ago. 
We had heard grass plover were ripe, and had been 
thrc:atenmg them for some time. The extreme northwest 
corner of Marion county runs into the high, rocky and 
rough- divide between the headwaters of the Cottonwood 
River and the Smoky Hill River. These hilly lands are 
reserved for cattle ranges and are fenced into very laree 
pastures and are otherwise as nature left them. In these 
pastures the grass plover come in spring and fall as of 
old. Wolves congregate here in increased numbers fol- 
Ibwmg the herds. But to the grass plover 
Lee is my boy, now fifteen years old. It has been my 
fortune to be among the wild game more than most men 
not to shoot— for it has been vears since I have shot to 
amount to anything, and years have intervened between 
