©EC. 12, 1903.1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
i66 
H. Seymour, Chatles Sheldon, O. J. Stephens, C. H. 
Stonebridge, H. H. Todd, C. H. Towilseiid, Dr. D. K. 
Tuthill, Dr. T. K, Tuthill. Dr. H. Vreeland, H. C. 
Walsh, H. D. Whitfield, Arthur D. Williams, J. Dun- 
bar Wright. 
The guests were: John Stewart Tanner, Prof. Liv- 
ingston Farrand. L. S. Quackenbush, Giraud F. 
Thompson, W. W. Niles, Dr. E. G. Tuttle, Wm. Town- 
send Colbron, Cha-. Snow Kellogg, Geo. A. H. 
Churchill, Jas. Boy. I Weir, Geo. MacDonald, H. M. 
Shearer, Juan Ga\ ma. Henry S. Clarke, Royal E. 
Moss, Dr. J. C. S hminke. Randolph Walker, Chas. 
D. Marvin, Basil A'. Rowe, A. B. Hudson, Jas. G. 
Campbell. Theo. I* irache, J. E. Nichols, F. M. Van 
Horn, Geo. Hodge Geo. T. Wilson, Tristram R. Cof- 
fin, Ralston R. C iTin, R. A. Franks, Chas. A. Reed, 
Wm. Schickel, Dr. Caille, Rev. Arthur Jamieson, Com. 
Henry Merrill, R. A. Gunn, T. E. Batten, H. de Lisser, 
Mr. Farnum, L. S. Darling. 
A telegram of regrets was read from Mr. Ernest 
Thompson Seton, requesting those present to add to 
the camp-fire one pine knot for him. T. E. B. 
The Night Hawk in Town. 
■ New York.— Editor Forest and Stream: Your corre- 
spondent, Mr. Flint, in the issue of Nov. 21, desired 
observations on the night hawk {Chordeiles virgimanus) 
in this city. I have often, on quiet summer evenings, 
seen these birds wheeling and diving after insects, but 
have never noticed them, particularly, near any of the 
city parks. Last summer I observed at least ten or a 
dozen almost directly over the corner of Barclay and 
Church streets. They were apparently after a swarm of 
gnats, and made considerable noise. The call, to my 
mind, sounds more like "Beeszt" than like "Go-zvalk" — 
there is certainly the "burr" in it, almost like the note of 
a cicada. Friends have sometimes pointed them out as 
swallows, but I have always corrected them by the un- 
failing mark — the wide, white bar across each wing. I 
have never heard them called "bull-bats" this side of 
Maryland or Virginia. I have no knowledge regarding 
their nesting habits. It would be interesting to know if 
they actually nest on the tops of our skj^-scrapers, but I 
would incline more to the belief that they nest in the 
parks, or other wooded places. J. K. Hand. 
[Night hawks are quite abundant in this city during 
the summer, and we have more than once seen what we 
believed to be a young bird flying through one of the 
down-town streets in the middle of the day, pursued by 
a crowd of street boys. The night hawk has been kno^yn 
to deposit its eggs on roofs of buildings in large cities 
and towns, and no doubt does so in New York. In Vol. 
VI. of Forest and Stream, page 318, it was reported as 
breeding on flat roofs of houses at Montreal, Can. It 
does not commonly nest in wooded places, but rather in 
open barren spots; thus we have commonly found their 
eggs lying on the bare rock in mountain pasture lands, on 
the bare sand on sand bars of rivers, and (probably C. y. 
henryi) on the disintegrated granite of high mountain 
plateaus in Wyoming. In none of these cases was there 
any nest, or any apparent shelter or protection for the 
young.] 
New York, Nov. 20— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Probably the night hawks in the vicinity of that aristo- 
cratic section, Central Park West, this city, are more 
given to song than their more modest brethren on the 
south side of the Park and the lower meadow, but, all 
the same, I have failed to observe that characteristic long 
sweep downward in their flight and the accompanying 
note that I lately tried to describe as "Go-ivalk," and 
thereby aroused the artistic criticism of Mr. Perkins. 
Up in the Adirondacks and over farm lands and pastures 
throughout the State this startling sound is often an ob- 
ject of wonder, and people are curious to learn whence it 
proceeds. The birds flying over the park may make this 
note, but from more than fifty observations taken in June 
and July lasting through several years I have never 
heard it, although my hearing is good. My observations 
have been principally confined to night hawks flying over 
the thickly settled portions of Manhattan. 
One night in June, 1900, I was at New Haven, Conn., 
near the green, and one of these birds awakened me 
several times by the explosive note. I do not see how 
"any intelligent listener" to this wild, bold tone could 
ever disgrace it by a comparison with the dead jingle of a 
loose bass guitar string. Peter Flint. 
Back-Trailing Horses. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
J B. Burnham's observations in Forest and Stream 
of Nov. 14. about "scent," reminds me that there have 
been, in past years, some warm oral discussions among 
the brotherhood of the hunting trail in the Rocky 
Mountains, concerning the wonderful ability of horses 
to follow a trail, as to whether it was done by scent, or 
just by some natural instinct. It would seem that they 
have some power other than that of scent, which en- 
ables them to follow in the exact footsteps of their 
own or that of other horses, months after the trail has 
been made. By the term "trail" I do not mean that of 
a definitely laid out and used trail, but the term as used 
here applies to any course through the mountains or 
forests which has been gone over by a horse. 
One season while trapping with a partner, we w9Uld 
sometimes operate in different localities for a time, 
each having two horses and complete outfit, and all one 
needed to know, in order to find the camp of the other 
was to know which way he had started, and once get 
the lead horse (the saddle horse) on the trail, and he 
would never fail to take the rider to the camp where 
the other horses were. In one instance my partner 
traveled over one of my old trails several weeks after 
I had passed along, and there was several inches of 
fresh snow on the ground, whereas the ground was bare 
when I had gone over it, and by giving his horse his 
bead, to go where he would, it brought him out at the 
spot he wanted to go. The horse would occasionally 
stop and smell of the logs as it stepped over them, but 
surely no scent could remain for that length of time, 
yet if not, how could a horse perform such feats? I 
hav« frequently ridden my hunting horse for many 
miles over the rough mountains, through windfalls and 
great bodies of dense woods, then turn back, and hang 
the reins on the saddle horn, and never give a thought 
as to where I was going, and would not only come out 
at the exact spot where I started in, but would cross 
every log, go around every obstacle and pass every 
point at the exact spot as in going. No part of a 
horse's faithfulness and service ever had the same effect 
in warranting my affection, as that of bringing me safe- 
ly and directly home or to camp, by his own good 
horse sense and instinct, especially if it be away in the 
night, when it has been so dark in the pine woods that 
I could not see his head, could see absolutely nothing, 
when it was so utterly dark as to be almost felt, when 
I would hang the reins loose and cover my head and 
face with my arms as a protection against brush, and 
after hours of such travel, come out where I wanted to 
be. Such faithfulness in our best dumb friends creates 
an affection, such as I have imagined Theodore Roose- 
velt must have had for old Manitou. 
Horses appear to differ in their power of scent, or 
at least in their instinct for direction, just as people 
do, and as I have observed, the large breeds of draft 
horses are not nearly so keen in this respect as the 
small, inferior breeds which are commonly used for 
pack and saddle animals, and which are descendants of 
the wild horses of the plains; even among the latter 
there are some which seem to have no idea of direction, 
or else have not the intelligence to go as their instinct 
would direct. It seems clear, though, after noting care- 
fully their actions, that any horse will, when left to 
himself, and away from home or camp (for any good 
camp horse conies to regard the camp as home), go in 
the direction they think is home, and it is difficult to 
guide them in any other direction after darkness be- 
gins to come on. 
Night overtook me-once many miles from camp, while 
following a bear, with a very rough and heavily tim- 
bered country between me and camp, without any sort 
of trail to follow, and all strange territory to me. I 
happened to be riding an old pack horse, which did not 
want to go the direction I thought camp to be. It was 
a bright moonlight night, and I was quite certain of 
my direction, but the horse was so determined on his 
way that I allowed him to go for some distance, and 
he struck out in an entirely different direction, when I 
knew by the moon that he waa wrong, and steered him 
my way, but had to keep a tight rein all the time, until 
my arm ached. About ten o'clock I rode straight into 
camp, but not until he was in sight of the other horses 
did he seem to realize where he was. So, with horses, 
as with wild animals, no positive rule can be laid down 
which will govern their actions under all conditions, for 
they have individuality and are not all born with a like 
instinct. Emerson Carney. 
MORGANTOWN. W. Va, 
Note on the Labrador Duck* 
In the article on the Labrador duck in Forest and 
Stream of December 5, it was not noted that the two speci- 
mens of the Labrador duck in the Charles B. Corey collec- 
tion have been in the Field Columbian Museum of 
Chicago for several years. It is understood that the 
specimen in the Gordon Plummer collection at Boston 
was sent to the museum of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, 
Trivy, England, shortly before Mr. Plummer's death in 
1893. At all events, it went abroad, so that the number 
of known specimens of the Labrador duck in England is 
12, and the total known in America is 30." 
The Kildeer Photographs. | 
The two charming photographs of the killdeer plover 
which were published in our issue of Dec. 5, were taken 
in Mexico by Mr. Russell Todd Cornell, a young mining 
engineer. 
All communications intended for Posest ahd Stkkam should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 
New York, and not to any individual connected with the paper. 
The Game Laws in Brief 
}s the standard authority of fish and game laws of the United 
States and Canada. It tells everything and gives it correctly. 
See in advertising pages list of some of the dealers who handle 
the Brief. ______________ - --^-^ 
Maine Big Game. 
Bangor, Maine, Dec. 5. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The moose season finally closed on Monday last, and the 
shipments to and through Bangor for the forty-five days 
of the open season is reckoned at 196 moose, to which 
to secure the correct number killed must be added a list 
of those held by those taxidermists so located that the 
trophies do not reach them by way of railroads and the 
express company. This will be considerable, so that the 
list will be materially enlarged, probably by from 25 to 50 
heads, or even more. Probably there are more than this 
number really in the hands of taxidermists, and, as yet, 
unreported, but as many of the hunters took their moose 
home with them, there is liable to be a duplication in the 
record, especially as at times the same train that carried 
out the whole animal or a part of it, also took the head 
to a taxidermist, making an apparent shipment of two 
moose, where there ought really to be reckoned but one. 
Still, there have undoubtedly been mqre moose killed in 
Maine this year than in any previous season for a number 
of years. This can scarcely be attributed to the increased 
number of non-resident hunters, but is readily explained 
hy the statement to your correspondent by a guide at the 
beginning of the season. _ He said that those guides who 
were without business this fall would go into the woods 
and kill a moose for themselves, and take it to a market, 
detetmining that, somehow, they must make something 
out of their knowledge of the woods, and where the 
moose are to be found. A careful perusal of the ship- 
ments shows that there was an unusual proportion of the 
moose shipped by residents of this State, not a few of 
whom took their moose to the Boston market for sale. 
The Commissioners of Inland Fisheries and Game have 
lately held a meeting in this city, and Chairman Carleton 
gave the. daily newspapers an interview, wherein he gave 
a most optimistic review of the season's business, and a 
complete ''vindication" of the wisdom of Maine in plac- 
ing a license upon those outside of the State who want 
to hunt big game here. It is a most interesting inter- 
view, and it is to be regretted that its length makes its 
reproduction here impossible. One singular feature of it 
is that the same interview, with perhaps the changing of 
one or two words to localize it, appeared in an Augusta 
morning paper, simultaneously with its publication in a 
Bangor daily. It is quite unusual for two reporters, on 
different publications, and nearly a hundred miles apart, 
to so exactly quote a person who consents to be inter- 
viewed. 
Some quotations may, however, prove interesting read- 
ing for the thousands who have been watching for the 
effects of the first year's application of the new statute. 
"We want to be quoted as saying most emphatically 
that this law has, even in the first year of its operation, 
proved a decided success, notwithstanding the adverse 
criticism it has received. It has been claimed that there 
has been a great falling off in the number of hunters who 
have come to Maine to hunt this year, due entirely to 
this law. This is not so. We are prepared to prove that 
of legitimate, desirable sportsmen there have been about 
the usual number in the Maine woods this season. * * * 
We have received and paid over to the State Treasurer 
this year, to date, in license fees, $26,650. This is all to 
be expended in warden service for big game and game 
birds. * * * More moose have been killed this 
year than were killed last year, and of deer passing 
through Bangor there is an apparent falling off of but a 
few hundred. But it has been said that 'more of our own 
people have hunted.' This is no doubt true, and will con- 
tinue to be so in the future. * * * But we want to 
say a word about the classes that have not come — not 
any considerable number to be sure — but on account of 
the noise they have made about their staying away one 
might be misled as to their numbers. * * * But their 
number has not been at all proportionate to the noise they 
have made about it. * * * The so-called 'Ohio and 
Indiana' parties have not come in any considerable num- 
bers. Where there were hundreds of them last year and 
year before, there have been scores, and these of the very 
best, this year. * * * Again, the 'market-hunter' has 
not come this year. * * * Again, the non-resident 
workman in the lumbering camps has not hunted to any 
great extent this year. * * * It is not exactly fair to 
compare this year with last year, for last year was the 
banner year — a phenomenal year — every condition for 
hunting being well nigh perfect. Nevertheless, when you 
deduct the 'Ohio and Indiana' parties, the number who 
have hunted without a license for birds and bears, there 
has been no great falling off, as we have said before, of 
legitimate, desirable sportsmen. The abundance of deer 
would apparently safely stand more hunters, but nobody 
believes that a larger number of moose can be safely 
killed 5'^early. * * * annual reports of the regis- 
tered guides, made in accordance with law, show that 
they have earned more money and guided more men 
more days than last year, * * * their reports to prove 
it are on file in our office. * * * We want to reiterate 
that the commissioners are greatly pleased with the 
great success of this law. Our woods have been safer. 
There has been but one case of accidental shooting and 
this was not fatal, by a non-resident, as against nine 
fatalities last year. We have had a better class of hun- 
ters, as a whole, than ever before, and they appear to be 
well pleased with this law." 
It is interesting, in reading this interview, to read in 
another part of one paper that gave liberal extracts from 
it, another article by one of Maine's prominent railroad 
officials, who declared that the business of transporting, 
caring for and guiding non-resident sportsmen had been 
cut at least in half this year as against the season of 
1902, and stating in the plainest of language that license 
was responsible for the tremendous falling off in busi- 
ness. He said that his road had not carried nearly one- 
half the sportsmen during the hunting season up to the 
close of the moose season, that it did a year ago ; that the 
guides and camp owners were complaining bitterly be- 
cause their incomes had been cut squarely in half; and 
predicting that the very men who expressed themselves as 
satisfied with the Maine license law, would be the first to 
desert the State as soon as they took a fancy to seek big 
game in New Brunswick; in fact, he doubted strongly if 
they would be in Maine next year at all, as the results 
were so much more satisfactory than in Maine under ex- 
isting conditions. 
The writer knows of one camp where all the parties 
accustomed to go there for a hunting trip gave up their 
visit, and all new parties, of whom there were several, 
cancelled their dates, the alleged reason being the objec- 
tion to the license law. A camp that entertained forty 
guests last fall worried through on five or six this season. 
A camp that was run at a loss throughout the fall, kept 
open in spite of it, that those regular patrons still faithful 
might not be turned away and given a chance to form at- 
tachments for some other locality — and the cases might 
be multiplied indefinitely, if there were room. 
Inasmuch as people who have to pay a sum for a possi- 
bility like to reduce the element of cliance from their trip 
as much as possible, and seek a section where they can 
get all the license permits, more moose have been shot 
this year than would, undoubtedly, otherwise have been. 
The guide who had nothing to do and felt obliged to turn 
his knowledge of moose and their ways to the enrichment 
of his own pocket, fared forth into the woods at the 
first opportunity, and shot his quarry, which was 
promptly sold to the highest bidder or taken to a city 
market. To be sure, the profits were scarcely as great as 
he anticipated in most cases, but that didn't prolong the 
life of the moose, and the net results to the State at 
large were hardly up to the value established by Mr. 
Carleton some years ago, when he announced that every 
live moose in the Maine woods was worth $500 to Maine. 
