1S6 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Oct. li,, 196-1 
As merrioi-y recalls many sporting trips, I find that 
soine of thefti which afforded me the most "true sport" 
were those iti , which, as Coahoma styles it, nothihg was 
procured which was Useful to me, and I take pleasUfe itt 
believing that a large majority of our Forest and Stream 
con-fraternity, like myself, seek the sports of oUr forests 
and streams with higher ideals than the gratification of a_ 
sensual appetite. Holding such views on the subject of 
sport, I could do no less than promptly take up the gaunt- 
let which Coahoma threw into the arena. 
I am willing to meet Coahoma, or any other sports- 
man, more than half-way in any matter of couytesy, and 
therefore offer my apologies to him for anything which 
I have written which he regards as objectionable. 
Jos. W. Shurter. 
Gamsbvoort, Oct. 4. 
Animals for the Zoological Society. 
Within a short time a number of important additions 
to the collections of the N. Y. Zoological Society have 
been secured, and will soon be brought together at the So- 
ciety's park in the Borough of the Bronx. 
Lieut. Peary, the Arctic explorer, who recently returned 
from the north, brough thence a musk-ox calf, very likely 
a yearling; a young walrus and a number of Eskimo dogs, 
all of which have been deposited in the park. The musk- 
ox, the second ever brought to this country, will, if it 
remains in the hands of the Zoological Society, replace the 
little animal presented to it some months ago by the Hon. 
W. C. Whitney, which recently died. The young walrus 
is the first ever seen in captivity in America, and is well 
worth a visit. 
Within a day or two the Director of the Society has 
returned from Europe, where he had been sent to pur- 
chase animals for the recently completed lion house and 
for mountain sheep hill. He was authorized to spend 
$17,000, of which it is understood $13,000 was expended, 
for a fine collection of lions, tigers, leopards and certain 
species of wild sheep and goats. Every effort was made 
to secure the best animals that could 1)6 obtained, and it 
was regarded as especially important that the great cats 
purchased should be desert-born captives, and not animals 
bred in captivity. Among the purchases are six lions, two 
tigers, two African leopards, two black leopards, two snow 
leopards, one cheetah, one clouded leopard, one jaguar and 
others given below. 
A particularly fine and large Nubian lion is one pre- 
sented by the little daughter of Andrew Carnegie, who, 
overhearing her father talking about the animals that 
were to be purchased, declared that she would like to give 
something to the Zoological Park. On heing asked what 
she would like to give, she said she would like to give the 
biggest and hairiest lion in the world. Her father author- 
ized the purchase of this fine animal. 
The clouded leopard is quite unusual in collections and 
is the only one in the United States. Two pairs of the 
lions are remarkably fine Barbary lions. Mr. Hornaday 
declares that it would have been impossible for him to 
succeed in securing so satisfactory a lot of animals had 
it not been for the co-operation of Carl Hagenbeck, the 
Hamburg animal dealer, who has always taken very 
great interest in the New York Zoological Society, and 
has made every effort to assist it in obtaining the best 
animals to be had. 
During the first year or two that the New York 
Zoological Society's collections were on exhibition,^ they 
consisted — in accordance with the plan of the Society — 
almost entirely of American species of animals; and in- 
deed until very recently, except for its monkeys, its bears 
and a few deer, there have been few Old World specimens 
on exhibition. Now that the lion house is completed, 
efforts will be made to fill that with beasts of the tropics, 
and as the years go by, New York may hope to show to 
the public collections of wild animals from all over the 
world, which will be not inferior to those seen in the 
zoological gardens of Europe. Those gardens have the 
advantage of far greater age than ours, but here in Amer- 
ica we iiave — if not age— energy, and, it may be hoped, the 
means to purchase specimens to fill our collections. 
The following animab from Europe were recently re- 
ceived at the park: One male chimpanzee, one Diana 
monkey, two Mona monkeys, three yellow-throat entellus 
monkeys, one giant tortoise, two Nubian tortoises, two 
anacondas, one python, two climbing iguanas. The more 
recent purchases which are likely to arrive about Oct. 20 
are: Two pairs Barbary lions, one pair Nubian lions, one 
pair Bengal tigers, one pair snow leopards, one clouded 
leopard, two black leopards, one jaguar, one cheetah, one 
African leopard, one hyena dog, two Arcal mountain 
sheep, two Ovis cycloceros, two Siberian ibex, one burhel 
(male), one moufflon, one thar, one Oryx Icucorys, one 
pair Caucasian maral deer, one muntjac and one hog deer. 
There is a surprising lack of general knowledge of the 
Zoological Park and its work. It is true that the attend- 
ance there is sometimes 20,000 people m a day, yet one 
would suppose that— now that the park is so accessible— 
so attractive a place and such interesting collections would 
draw thither much greater throngs of people. It is a 
matter of surprise also that the number of annual mem- 
bers of the Society does not increase more i-apidly. In 
and about New York there are thousands and thousands 
of people who are genuinely interested in such an enter- 
prise as this, each of whom could well afford to be, and 
should be, a member of the Society, receiving the benefits 
which accrue from membership, and feeling an active in- 
terest in the Society's welfare. It may be hoped that dur- 
ing the coming winter the membership of the Society will 
largely increase, and we should be very glad to put any 
one who may desire to join the Society iri the way of 
doing so. 
How Does the Gfowse Dtink? 
Springfield^ Vt., Sept. 27. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
One winter's night in the city of New York a little group 
of sportsmen and naturaHsts were discussing over their 
cigars the subjects nearest their hearts. Among other 
thtn'-'-s that came up was the drinking of the ruffed grouse. 
find most of the company expressed a belief that the bifd 
drinks just as does the domestic hen. The doubting 
Thomas who raised the question had had no personal 
experience, but knew of a man who had caught a 
partridge and confined it in a cage, with abundant food 
and water: the bird ate but the man never saw her drink. 
One day for some purpose he poured water over the cage 
and the bird pecked up with eagerness the drops that 
ran down and clung to the wire. After that he watered 
the captive by pouring water over grasses or something 
from which she could peck the drops. The conclusion of 
the narrator of this incident was that these birds obtained 
their water from the dew or rain on the grass or buJhes, 
or by some brookside where the long grasses dipped into 
the stream. 
Has any reader of Forest and Stream information to 
give on this point? Is there any one who has actu- 
ally seen a wild ruffed grouse drink after the manner of 
the common barnyard fowl? 
At the last Sportsmen's Show at Boston were several 
cages of different varieties of grouse advertised as the 
only ones ever successfully kept and bred in captivity. 
These birds must drink; how do they do it? And if they 
drink like domestic hens and chickens did they learn it 
from their foster mothers or is it their natural way? WhO 
has seen the wild ruffed grouse go down to the water to 
drink? W. W. Brown. 
Beasts of Prey in Nofway. 
Even in severe winters wolves rarely visit the southern 
districts of Norway, but of late years they have com- 
mitted considerable depredations among the elk in the 
central and northern provinces, as well as among the rein- 
deer in Finmarken. Like foxes, wolves are usually killed 
by poison or are captured in traps ; occasionally, however, 
it happens that one is shot, while the Lapps sometimes 
run them down in winter on "ski," a feat which is always 
looked upon as a meritorious one, and which may perhaps 
occupy several days. 
At one time the lynx (gaupe) was fairly numerous in 
Norway, and from 1846-70 premiums were paid on 3,204 
(that is to say, 120 annually) ; between 1871-75, 604, or an 
average of 121 per annum, were accounted for, and in 1B77 
only seventy-seven ; while latterly not more than fifty or 
sixty have been killed each year. The lynx is of most fre- 
quent occurrence in Nor dl and, and is seldom met with in 
the southwestern districts; but according to Professor 
Collett one was shot in 1873 in Nedenaes Amt (the most 
southerly province). The same author relates how at a 
farm laborer's place at Toten, a two-year-old child that 
had fallen asleep close by a wood was carried off by a 
large lynx, but was rescued by its father, who happened 
to be near; the child, however, died of the wounds in- 
ilicted. The lynx is killed by poison and by trapping; it 
is also shot over baits set to attract it, and by "ringing," 
and when hunted by dogs it usually takes refuge in. a tree. 
— London Field. 
^tti^ ^ttd ^mu 
— $ — 
Woodcock and Wood Duck* 
Toronto, Oct. i. — Editor Forest and Stream: The able 
and opportune article on the "Woodcock and Wood 
Duck" in your last issue of Forest and Stream by Mr. A. 
K. Fisher, should have the eft'ect of producing concerted 
action of all true lovers of forest, field and stream for the 
better protection of these grand game birds. 
After devoting considerable time to the consideration of 
the most effective measures for preventing the extermina- 
tion of these two species, it is my decided opinion that it 
can only be prevented by the action of the Federal Gov- 
ernment of the United States. Close season for several 
years to be effective must be general all over the United 
States and the Dominion of Canada. It would be of no 
avail having several years' close season in the Western, 
Middle and Eastern States, and our own Province of On- 
tario, the principal breeding grounds of the woodcock and 
wood duck, if the lazy, loafing market-hunters in the 
South — ^the winter home of the woodcock — were allowed 
full swing in their miserable work of extermination. 
As a rule true sportsmen are of a kindly disposition, 
but it cannot be expected that they will practice self- 
denial to the extent of protecting game birds in the breed- 
ing grounds for several years for the sole benefit of South- 
ern market-hunters. 
I am not sufficiently conversant with the constitutional 
powers of the Federal Government as to its power to take 
action making the protection of these birds general instead 
of comparatively local. 
Trusting that some of the many able contributors to 
Forest and Stream, better able to do justice to this im- 
portant matter than your humble servant, will take it up. 
E. Tinsley. 
Quail Shooting in Virginia. 
pHiLADEti'HlAj P&.^EditOr Ppresi and Stream:' I ha'^- 
read with interest many of this journal's ably written coi: 
tributed articles, and while I am not like Ninirod, a miRhi 
hunter, nor able to boast of my moose Or my mounta' 
lion, yet what I can write regarding "the things where( 
I best know" may prove not unhelpful to those who a; 
like me, unpretending seekers after the unpretentiot 
quail. I have noticed that the talk has been all of til 
iM^orth and West, of Michigan, Maine and Canada, whi' 
lovers of sport have overlooked the rolling hills and sum, 
slopes of the South. 
The abundance of game still remaining in the lari 
forests of some of the oldest States — the Carolinas ai 
Virginias — is quite surprising to one familiar only \vi 
the thickly settled regions of Pennsylvania or New Yor 
It is true that in some of these States the game laws a^ 
of little consequence, or are little enforced or heeded, ar 
especially does this seem to be true of Virginia, but 
would seem that there is little necessity for stringent i:)r 
tection in this State, at least in the south central part ai 
along he smaller rivers, for the city sportsman is as y 
almost totally unknown there, and to the hound-loviii 
fox-hunting Virginian, the shooting of woodcock an 
"partridges" does not seem to appeal, while the gre 
bodies of primeval woods and long-abandoned fields for 
in themselves a sufficient guaranty of the game sup]; 
for many years to come. 
It was on the beautiful little Meherrin River that my 
quaintance with this country of rocks and ravines a- 
pine-crowned hills began, one day in early October, \vli«' 
with a Parker and my pet partners, Nip' and Tuck, 
stepped from the flying express at South Hill Station, 
the A. & D. The little place must have been named f 
some occult reason, for there is no hill, though there a 
plentjr of them everywhere else. An old darkey presen, 
hailed me as "de gem'man f'om Phil'delphia," a 
bundling me and my traps into a light spring wagon, w'. 
Nip and Tuck at my feet, we started off through the sk 
fall sunshine, over the leaf-strewn roads, toward Bag] 
Farm, somewhere twelve miltfs aAvay to the west, the c 
darkey gabbling tmceasingly of wood lore and the tin 
"befo' de wah." It was late in the afternoon when 
reached the old, low plantation house, built in the ra' 
bling Southern style, and I had a "supper" and a welcoi 
that fully sustained the fame of Virginia hospitality, 
old and picturesque place this is, just responding to n 
life in the touch of Northern influence. Throttgh a gapi 
the hills Bear's Element and Mason creeks wind down, 
plain view, to their confluence in a deep, still lake, a 
there at the end, not a quarter of a mile away, is an ( 
grist mill of the Revolutionary days, its wheel still tu; 
ing just as it did when Tarleton raided Virginia, 
threw, I was told, all its grain out into the river. T 
section is almost in its original condition of forest, for 
more than forty miles back from the Southern Road th^ 
is no railway station, and very little timber has been c 
and hundreds of acres cleared long ago for farming pi 
poses have been abandoned to stumpy pines and brush a 
broom sedge, the kiiid of cover which quail and mead 
lark like best. The first day my dogs stood three covi 
of quail within as many acres, and I have started late a 
bagged thirty-eight birds within a day. There are plei 
of deer and turkeys, too, (hough they arc hard to get, s 
one who loves a quiet angle may spend a busy hour uii. 
the drooping sycamores by the river, and whoever 1 
tried it has regretted, I am sure, to turn his back on 
deep woods and clear skies of the land of the "partridf 
and the woodcock. E. 1 
Philadelphia, Oct. 2. — Editor Forest and StrMm: 
There is at least one citizen of Philadelphia who is dis- 
posed to doubt the truth of the statement that the wood - 
cock is rapidly vanishing. Not being a sportsman, his 
views are confined to his experiences with the longbill as 
a city visitor. A short time ago he was startled to hear 
a scream from his wife, who was busy in the kitchen. 
Upon his going to the scene and inquiring the cause of her 
fright, she pointed to the cellar doorway opening into the 
kitchen, and there he saw a fine full-grown woodcock, 
v.'hich had come hopping up from the cellar below and 
whose advent had so startled her. The bird was caught, 
but subsequently escaped to some piled-up boards and 
Idndling wood in the cellar, and has probably starved to 
death ere this, as all efforts to recapture or liberate it 
have failed. Its weird cries could be heard at night for 
about three weeks, but it has not been seen since. The 
only way for it to get into the cellar was by a small 
tear in the netting of a window. Probably it had struck 
a wire and fallen to the street and thence to the_ cellar 
for refuge, or perhaps it had designs on the coal bin. 
The same person a few evenings since saw another 
woodcock sitting on the lower part of the skeleton work 
of a large sign a fcAV feet above his head. Both of these 
birds were seen in the thickly built up section of the city. 
Ocean. 
A Successful Outing for Moose 
Between the Renous and the Bartholomew river 
branches of the Southwest Miramichi — runs the Dung 
von, and on each side of it lies a tract of land that 
very easy of access, and, at present, is perfectly teem 
with big game. We hunted on the south side of the D; 
garvon. Our party consisted of two and a guide or call 
J. P. had been after moose on former occasions, 
though he had seen and shot at several, his gun did 
seem to have the power to stop them. This time he t!) 
his new .30-30. Doc had hunted deer in Ontario, ; 
was familiar with shooting birds in Manitoba, but, 
yet, had no experience with moose. Our guide and ca 
was J. Ronald McDonald. He took along his Mause 
which had seen service in Cuba — ^as Doc was not satis; 
with the gun he had. As each could cook, a cook 
considered unnecessary. 
Engaging a team, we went in to Whooper Spring, 
called from the famed Dungarvon Whooper, and oci 
pied the camp there on Sept. 21. On our way in 
thottght we would rest the horses and have lunche 
While occtipied with our repast, two caribou came out! 
a little knoll near us — about twenty yards or so awa' 
and were interested spectators. They were a pretty si| 
A scramble for our guns made them think of an enga 
ment elsewhere, for before we could load, they 
vanished into the woods. The rest of our trip in was 
eventful. Doc shot a fine owl, while J. P. captured a 
fine birch partridge iiear the camp. After putting thi 
in their places at camp, there being a few hotirs bei 
sundown, a visit to the barrens was proposed by I, 
who had never as yet seen one. Accordingly, we got 
guns and went to the handiest one, our guide cantior, 
us to look out for game. Stire enough, a fine cari' 
was seen, and before he could gain the woods, four si 
Vv^ere fired at him, all of which were accounted for w' 
we reached him. One, unfortunately, broke a horn, wl 
spoiled the head for mounting. Dressing the cari^ 
took but a short time, and proudly ^ve. wended 
way to camp. We sent back the tearji Witli three of 
quarters to friends in Blackville. 
Sunday, we spent in accustoming ourselves to our h 
roundings, reconnoitering and getting the lay of the la- 
visiting two barrens, two and four miles respecti>i 
from camp. On the first, we saw a fine bull and 
cows, and on the other, two caribou. It being Sunt; 
we refrained from disturbing them. 
Monday bright and early we were on the edge of 
barren, but had to wait till the sun dispelled the htj 
niist. Across the barren we saw three moose. The gt- 
gave a couple of short calls at intervals, which attra- 
the attention of the bitU, and caused him to. approac 
