104 
FOREST ANI!) STHEAM. 
[Aug. 9, 1902. 
the rocks before the strength of the current adds to 
his own fury. All this is easier to plan than to accom- 
plish. Now he sulks at the bottom, again he makes a 
break for the upper water and then, as he begins to 
tire, I gain on him, inch by inch. It is no longer a ques- 
tion of endurance, but will the tiny hook hold fast until 
I get him ten more feet? Slowly he follows, as I lead, 
along the log. Does he know that he is leaving forever 
the black pool under' the willows that he is so loath to 
wander from its icy solitude? At length the end of the 
log is reached. He feels the thrill of the swirling, boil- 
ing torrent. He is not too exhausted for one final, 
desperate contest for life. He lashes his tail. The reel 
sings for an instant, then hushes responsive to a finger 
touch. Up flies the tip and the landing net is under him, 
just as the frayed leader snaps. The battle royal is ended. 
A two-pounder, the largest fish that I have taken from 
The stream in four years! 
I may have spent ten minutes with him or I might 
have worked an hour. One takes no heed to the lapse 
of time; but it was high noon when I dressed him and 
■put him in the basket. No more fishing to-day. The 
rod and creel are cached. Only the camera is needed on 
the old mountain road, that now strikes sharply upward 
toward the snowbanks under whicli are forests dense of 
pine, groves of quaking asp, and upland meadows, where 
the starting grass is but a background for blue lupines, 
scarlet paint-brush, golden poppies. Even now the air 
is chilled by the midsummer drifts. Little streams fur- 
row their channels down the steep side hills, and the 
road, erstwhile a trifle dusty, turns dark and damp, and 
has a certain loamy, springlike fragrance of its own. 
Here, in the mud, I see the clear cut autograph of deer. 
Yonder the mother grouse has led her brood, and yet 
again some lynx or bob-cat, coming down with cautious 
step to stalk his prey, has left his padded imprint in the 
mould of clay. 
Film after film is exposed amid these ever-changing 
scenes. At length a well-worn boulder, an arm chair in 
granite, invites rest. This is the liinit of the day's ex- 
cursion. Square in front of me, into the afternoon 
blue, rises a peak with naked crest. I have seen it hun- 
dreds of times before, but to-day it looks strangely 
new, strangely old. Yes, I know! It is old Graylock, 
reincarnated among the rugged fastnesses of the Wa- 
satch. Old Graylock! Just twenty-one years ago to-day 
I saw him for the last time, as I went down the peaceful 
Housatonic Valley from North Adams to Pittsfield. So 
I sit and dream of every trout stream on both sides of 
the mountains from Rutland to Great Barrington; of 
the Deerfield massacre and childhood tales of the Green 
Mountain boys, until the lengthening shadows warn me 
that I am a long way from the cabin, and that an old 
man is invariably weary at the end of the day. Down 
hill I wander, light-hearted as a school-boy, down toward 
the glorious sunset. The one large trout and the eight 
little ones are an easy burden, and the camera and field 
glasses are unnoticed. In the gloaming I reach the 
clearing. The visitors, if there have been any, have de- 
parted. The damage that they have done will not be 
visible until morning. Soon the trout are frying in the 
pan and the teakettle is simmering over the coals. The 
door is wide open and I draw up my bed, so that I can 
look out into the starlight. The pine branches soothe me 
with their lullaby, and the whippoorwill sings "taps." I 
lie down devoutly thankful that from this Fourth I 
do not have to awaken in a Central American jungle. 
Shoshone. 
Nature Books Worth Readings 
Among the Waterfowl. By Herbert K. Job. Cloth, 
224 pp. Profusely illustrated. Price, $i.35 net. 
We are becoming so accustomed to the wonderful work 
done by photographers that the marvellous results which 
they attain no longer astonish us. The birds especially 
■have been subjects for the photographer's skill, and withm 
the past few years we have had many examples of the 
beautiful bird pictures that lens and dry plate will give. 
Mr. H. K. Job's book, "Among the Water Fowl," pos- 
sesses a singular interest to the sportsman and naturalist 
from the great number of its illustrations, all of which 
are photographs from life, and most of them by the 
author. The book is divided into five parts, whose happily 
chosen titles are: "The Submerged Tenth." treating of 
the grebes and loons; "Modern Cliff Dwellers," telling 
about gannets, guillemots, auks, puffins, kittiwakes, etc. ; 
"Ocean Wanderer," the shearwaters, jaegers, petrels and 
phalaropes; "The White-Winged Fleet," that is gulls and 
terns, and last, "Wild Fowl of Wild Fowl,," treating of 
the true wildfowl, or the ducks and geese. 
The volume, which is written in very pleasing style, tells 
the story of such adventures as were had in taking the 
100 pictures which make the book so beautiful. The style 
is pleasing and will attract, but after all the great beauty 
of the book is found in the splendid photographs which 
Slu^rate it. An astonishing amount of time and labor 
piust have been required to take these pictures, which 
-unquestionably represent the trips of many years. The 
author very truly says: "Far more skill and resource are 
Ife'auired to photograph a wild creature than to shoot it. 
^£nd the picture when secured is ordinarily of far greater 
Value than a few mouthful' s of flesh. * * * Would it 
.not be a wise policy to interest our boys in nature study 
and the camera as applied to it." 
Mr. Job's bird studies cover a wide range of territory, 
extending from the great plains of the West to the bird 
rocks at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and even still 
further out into the broad ocean. He tells his story enter- 
tainingly, and the volume ought to have a wide circula- 
tion, for it represents a side of bird life of which we 
know too little. 
Naiure Biographies. By Clarence Moores Weed. 
Cloth, 164 pp. Illustrated. Price, $1.50 net. 
Another volume to which photography has contributed 
much to make plain many of the processes of nature is 
Mr Clarence Moores Weed's "Nature Biographies," 
which tells us quite full}^ and very simplj^ and plainly facts 
about the lives of .some every-day butterflies, moths, 
grasshoppers and flies. Several of these brief chapters 
have appeared in current publications, and parts of two or 
three others in the Official Bulletin of the New Hampshire 
College Experiment Station. All deal with forms of life 
and objects which are familiar to persons who spend 
much of their time out of doors, and the information 
WESTERN GULLS. 
By Otto Von Bargen. 
From "Among the Waterfowl." 
given in text and illustration answers many questions that 
are constantly occurring to people who have made no 
study of entomology. Here are chapters on the making of 
a butterfly, the tent caterpillar, a rural imposter — the 
sweet fern caterpillar — the destructive forest tent cater- 
pillar, the walking stick, the chokecherry tent maker, the 
MXIRRES AND AUKS. 
From "Among the Waterfowl." 
v/ork of photographing insects, studies of insect parasites 
and insects in winter. The volume is illustrated by 150 
photographs by the author, and no single one of these 
photographs fails to have a distinct relation to the text 
or to illuminate it. Not one could have been omitted 
without lessening the book's usefulness. Thus in the 
COMMON TERN ABOUT TO SETTLE UPON HER EGGS. 
From "Among the Waterfowl." 
chapter on the making of the butterfly there are just 
twelve admirable illustrations, which show the transfor- 
mations gone through by the insect from the time the 
caterpillar begins to feed until the butterfly has been de- 
veloped in all its perfection. 
The volume abounds in information about the common- 
est things, yet things about which most outdoor people 
are quite ignorant. How many people, for example, know 
that many caterpillars only feed at night, remaining quiet 
during the day in order to avoid the attacks of birds. 
How many are aware that there is at least one cater- 
pillar which so closely resembles a leaf of the plant on 
which it feeds that it is exceedingly difficult to find even 
by one who is carefullj' searching for the specimen. 
It is not easy to appreciate the good that is done by 
books such as this, which aid us to comprehend the 
familiar objects seen in our daily walks through the 
country treating of them in so plain and simple a 
fashion that no effort is required to understand the 
fascinating story told of each object described. 
The Brook Book. By Mary Rogers Miller. Cloth, 241 
pp. Illustrated. Price, $1.35 net. 
This is another attractive volume on the familiar things 
seen by the observant wanderer abroad. Taking for its 
title the brook, we are told of the different things seen 
along its course from spring through summer, autumn 
and winter. The book is illustrated by sixteen half-tcnc 
full-page engravings, beautifully printed in a soft brown 
ink, which gives a good effect, and by a multitude of line 
drawings of plants, insects, birds, fishes and many other 
things. 
In" a preface or foreword the author says : "Through- 
out the year the brook is captivating. It is as companion- 
able as a child and as changeful. It hints at mysteries, 
but does it tell secrets other than its own? Does it tell 
where the wild things come down to drink? Does it tell 
where the birds take their baths, or where the choicest 
wild flowers lurk?" It was to learn all these things, we 
may imagine, that the author took her journeys at the 
different seasons of the year along the brook's course, and 
about these journeys and what she saw on them she tells 
us in most charming and discursive style. To some 
people the "Brook Book" will be more attractive than the 
"Nature Biographies," but it is written in an entirely 
different style, the information which it gives is far less 
directly presented, yet there is quite as much of it. More- 
over, Miss Miller's book covers a far wider field than does 
Mr. Weed's. The two are not to be compared. Each in 
its own way is admirable, and each gives something that 
the other does not present. The two may well be read 
together. It is not only to the nature lover that Miss 
Miller's book appeals. Here the angler also may learn 
much of interest concerning those insects which dwell 
along the brook, many of which pass some stage of their 
existence under water, and either in the depths or above 
the surface become food for trout and other fish. A goodly 
measure of success is to be predicted for these three vol- 
umes, each most attractive and each covering a different 
field. 
Tame Gfowse. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Didymus says it's a mystery to him how Mrs, McKenna 
tamed the grouse. Others seem to think the grouse un- 
tameable, but this is not the fact. 
When farming in Maine several times I placed grous, 
cggs under hens and the chicks were easily tamed, 
I remember an even half-dozen that were brought up 
in a large hen house with a ground floor. The birds wer. 
not so wild as the hens confined with them, doubtless be- 
cause they were petted and fed fruit and hemp seed. 
When about two-thirds grown, a weasel killed five before 
I succeeded in killing the "varmint," The remaining 
grouse wintered well, but developed a peculiarity. When- 
ever I, or my wife, entered the hen house the grouse 
would fly to the shoulder and utter the most heartrending 
lament that ever issued from the throat of a bird. 
It would not eat while we were present, but the little 
scamp the moment we were outside would eat with th 
hens, seemingly w"ell content. In the spring I allowed tl 
grouse the freedom of the dooryard with some blac: 
■ducks. In June an Angora cat came into the kitchen one 
morning dragging the poor grouse, the life completely out 
of its little bod}'. 
Since I have lived in the woods of Cape Ann, I have 
tamed grouse that come to- my dooryard, so that they will 
eat in my presence. One pair became very tame th- 
second year, but ih the fall a sportsman made a doub 
on them, not over ten rods from my cabin. He was ver 
sorry when I told him their history. Hermit. 
Mr, Harland in his novel "The Lady Paramount," says : 
"There are very few birds that can't be tamed. You've 
only got to familiarize them with your presence at a cer- 
tain spot, at a certain hour, and keep very still, and be 
very, very gentle in your movements, and croon to the; 
and bring them food. I have tamed wilder birds thai 
greenfinches, in Italy. I have tamed goldfinches, black- 
caps, and even an oriole. And if you have once tamed a 
bird, and made him your friend, he never forgets you. 
Season after season, when he returns from his migra- 
tion, he recognizes you, and takes up the friendship where 
it was put down — ^until at last there comes a season when 
he returns no more." 
Golgfas* 
In tropical America there are many varieties of insects 
capable of, inflicting painful and sometimes even danger- 
ous wounds. Of scorpions, centipedes and tarantulas 
one frequently hears, but other insects are rarely men- 
tioned. 
Returning from qne of my explorations in Honduras 
and expecting to be in New York after a reasonable 
time, I was particularly anxious to secure a collection 
of orchids, and at one place saw what I thought a de- 
sirable specimen near the top of a tall tree, I bargained 
with a bright little Spanish boy, who agreed to climb 
after the orchid and bring it to me- for ten cents. He 
went up lightly enough, and as he cut the plant from 
the tree, it suddenly swarmed with black insect-s. The 
people who were looking on shouted "golgas! golgas!" 
and called to the boy to come down. He knocked thei 
plant off first and then slid rapidly down the slender^ 
tree to the ground, blood dripping from one hand. As 
he reached the ground he said proudly, "I got it and 
only one bit me." He had a deep cut in the fleshy part 
of his hand below the thumb, which we bound up care- 
fully, the men explaining to me that the golga is a big 
ant capable of inflicting such a deep wound that a per- 
