Apidt id, 1964. j 
may be brought down with a .32-gauge at a distance of 
ten yards." 
Provided with an arm such as has been indicated, and 
with a few ordinary shells in his pocket, _ for larger 
specimens, or for birds at a considerable distance, the 
young collector may safely enough start out to secure 
his specimen. But he must provide himself with a few 
other things, in order that he may bring in the birds 
that he kills in satisfying shape. In a fishing basket, 
which he will carry on his back, he should have an old 
newspaper or two, a little bunch of cotton, and a tight 
box, containing a little plaster of paris, to stop the 
bleeding in a bird that may be badly shot. From a 
piece of the newspaper he will, when he secures a bird, 
make a cone, into which the bird should be slipped, 
head first, and then, turning in the open end of the 
cone, the feathers will be kept smooth and clean until 
he returns to the house and put the specimen away. It 
is often convenient to have in the basket a pair of small 
forceps, which may be useful in several ways before 
the day is over. 
If the student is a beginner, and desires only a speci- 
men or two for practice, he will do well to try his 
hand first on a bird the size of a blackbird or a bluejay. 
Let him kill two such birds, if the opportunity offers, 
and then return to the house and begin his work. 
As soon as the bird has fallen it should be picked up. 
If, by any chance, it is not yet dead, an instant end 
should be put to its sufferings, by taking it in the right 
hand, placing the forefinger in the fork of the breast 
bone immediately below the neck, the thumb and second 
finger being against the bird's side, just back of the 
wings and above the breast, and then compressing the 
body. This causes instant death by suffocation, and is 
as painless as possible. 
If there is no sign of blood on the plumage, or from 
the mouth or nostrils, open the bird's mouth, and with 
a small twig, or a match, push a little wad of cotton 
into the mouth and a little way down the throat, gather- 
ing it up, so that none, of it projects from the side of 
the bill, and close the bill, and see that it remains 
closed. The wad of cotton should be large enough to 
comfortably fill the throat, and so to prevent the pass- 
age of any blood or juices that otherwise might come 
from the gullet, or the lungs. If the bird should be 
bleeding at the nostrils, these should be plugged with 
cotton, which may easily be thrust into them by the 
fine point of a twig, or a match whittled down small 
enough to enter the nostrils. If anywhere on the plu- 
mage there should be a clot of blood it must be re- 
moved by the blade of a penknife, moved with the grain 
of the feathers, and the feathers then be lifted lip, and 
the shot-hole dusted with sufficient plaster of paris to 
TOOLS USED. 
absorb the flowing blood, and, as it hardens, to stop 
that flow. Some of the books recommend the plugging 
of these wounds with cotton, and if it is properly done 
this is very well, but too often the cotton fails to com- 
pletely fill the orifice, and the blood continues to leak 
out, and to spread among the feathers. A dab of plas- 
ter, on the other hand, is usually quite effectual, and 
after the skin has been removed can be broken up and 
removed from the feathers. 
If by mischance a pellet or two of shot should have 
struck the bird in the eye, the moisture from the eye 
is likely to leak out and wet the feathers of the head 
and neck. This may well enough cause trouble when 
the time comes for removing the skin, and I have fre- 
quently, in such a case, carefully introduced the points 
of the forceps between the eyelids, and removed the 
whole eye, taking up any moisture that might appear 
by means of plaster of paris, with which the orbit can 
easily be dried. This is something, however, that is 
not likely to happen. 
When the bird has been so prepared that no blood 
or other moisture will injure it during the excursion, 
make your cone of paper, as already advised, and having 
done up the bird, lay it away in the bottom of the 
fishing basket, with the paper, cotton and other things, 
above it. 
Before this you will have provided the necessary 
tools for your work. These should be two or three 
sharp scalpels, such as are used by doctors in dissecting, 
a pair of scissors of medium size, two pairs of forceps, 
one small and the other somewhat longer, and a short 
pair of fiat-pointed carpenter's pliers. For most pur- 
poses a really sharp penknife will do about as well as 
the scalpels, but the latter are somewhat more con- 
venient. One can use either tool, swiftly and satisfac- 
torily, when accustomed to it. Besides this, a tin box, 
with a tight-fitting cover, should hold a pound or two of 
arsenic, and in this box should be a brush for dusting 
the poison on the skin. A wad of cotton, tied about 
the end of a stick, or, what is still better, the foot o{ 
a hare, lashed by half a dozen turns of fine wire to the 
end of a stick, makfes a convenient implement for the 
purpose. All these airticles should be together in the 
room, and on the table where you are to do your 
skinning. For this work you should have a special 
place; the cellar, or some corner in the barn or in an 
outhouse, where it is warm in cold weather. It is bet- 
ter not to do the skinning in your bedroom, nor at 
random all about the house, as the fragments of fiesh 
and the bird bodies, which you will have to throw away, 
are not agreeable objects for the housekeeper — and per- 
haps not for any one — to see. Moreover, your poison 
should be kept where no one can get at it. It is better 
to have all these things under lock and key, if possible. " 
If you collect bird skins or those of mammals, you 
will need a case in which to keep them. Such a case, 
economical in the matter of room, and convenient, be- 
cause it keeps the skins from pressure, and so from 
getting out of shape, may be made by having con- 
structed a box, two feet long, eighteen inches wide, and 
twenty inches high, into which shall fit, one over the 
other, a series of wooden trays — of the lightest possible 
stuff, the bottoms even being of pasteboard — the deepest 
two and one-half inches in depth, and from that running 
down to an inch in depth. The box opens at the top 
with a lid, hinged behind, and furnished with a lock. 
The trays are to hold your skins, those of the smaller 
birds going into the shallower trays, and the larger 
ones being placed in the deeper ones. The deepest 
tray of all may, for a time, at least, serve to hold your 
stuffing tools and your poison. Such a box should be 
light, but strongly constructed, with all the joints ab- 
solutely tight, and with the lid tight fitting, so as to 
keep out insects. 
Amateur. 
Bear Ways and Other Things. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Mr. Hardy is right about bear retaining their fat 
all winter. I have killed bear at all times of the year, 
and always made a post-mortem examination. About 
a month or so before a bear dens up, the stomach be- 
gins to contract, and by the time a bear is ready to 
den the stomach is contracted until it looks like a 
chicken gizzard, and it and the intestines are clean and 
empty, and the bear is a mass of fat, inside and out. 
After the cubs are born a female gradually loses her 
fat, and is rather poor by the time she comes out. But 
the males and barren females seem just as fat when they 
come out as when they denned, and carry their fat for 
some time afterward. I have killed very fat bears at 
least two months after they had come out in the spring. 
Most bears seem to eat very little, and to carry this 
fat until vegetation gets a good start and they get green 
food; after that they lose fat very rapidly. This applies 
more especially to bear that live in a snow country. 
Here in the West the lowland bear den up only dur- 
ing the coldest weather, do not put on much fat in the 
fall, and lose it early in the spring. In the mountains 
bear den up with the first heavy snow — ^generally in 
November or December — and stay in until March or 
April. But a warm spell during the winter will always 
bring out the bear, though they will not go far from 
their dens. Most of the bear dens I have seen were 
holes dug out on a north hill in heavy timber where 
snow would be deep, but I have also found bear in 
caves and under windfalls. Hollow logs large enough 
are scarce out here. 
As regards bear killing game I do not think that 
they destroy much. A bear is omnivorous, and if he 
comes across a young animal asleep takes it in, but he 
would be just as well satisfied if it were anything else 
edible. 
I have found remains of the young of elk and deer 
that had been killed by bear, but not many, and never 
found a large game animal that I was sure had been 
killed by bear. Still, some bear will kill cattle, and 
would no doubt kill big game if they had a chance. 
All the young game animals I know of that were killed 
by bear were small ones that the mother had left and 
the bear had stumbled on, and I do not think that bear 
make a practice of hunting' game. But a bear picks up 
all the eggs of ground-nesting birds that he finds. 
Anything in the animal or vegetable line that is edible 
is bear food, so bruin has no trouble in keeping a full 
stomach, and does not have to hunt like a wolf or 
cougar. One of these last will, in a game or stock 
country, kill every three or four days. 
What Mr. Hardy says about what the majority of 
people believe about bear losing their fat brings to my 
mind the lack of close observation among those who 
pose as authorities on natural history, and from whom 
most people get their ideas. 
One writer, in speaking of chasing a bunch of wild 
horses, speaks of a snow-white mare that was easily 
seen at night, and made it possible to follow it con- 
stantly. It is very evident that this writer had never 
night wrangled horses, or he would have known that 
it is almost impossible to see a white horse at night, 
and that a black or bay can be seen three or four times 
as far. As a matter of fact, against any background 
but black or green a white animal is harder to see in 
daylight than a dark colored one. This same writer 
wor^s up a harrowing story about being caught by the 
hand in a wolf trap, when, if he had placed a foot on 
each spring and pulled upon the trap with both hands 
he would have been loosed at once. A man caught by 
the hand in any trap but a No. 6, 42-pound bear trap 
can get loose, and I have seen men open and set a 
No. 6 in this way, but of course they were very strong. 
By the way, can a grizzly bear cub climb a tree? This 
writer says that they can, and that as they grow older 
their wrists get stiff and they cannot climb. Now, I 
always thought that a grizzly cannot climb because 
the claws of his fore feet are too straight to get hold 
on a tree. I never saw a grizzly cub climb. Once we 
had a grizzly and a cinnamon cub in camp at the same 
time. They were about four months old and used to 
have great tussels with the dogs. When the cinnamon 
got the worst of it he always took to a tree, but tha 
grizzly never treed, but would back up against some- 
thing and knock out every dog that came near. And 
though the cinnamon was up a tree half the time, 
either to get away from the dog or for the fun of 
climbing, the grizzly never attempted to climb. 
I have several times come on a she bear and cubs 
and could almost always chase a black or cinnamon 
cub up a tree, but could never make a grizzly cub take 
a tree under any circumstances. 
Many of the writers on outdoor life seem to write 
a whole lot by guess anyway. One has some of his 
characters traveling when it is so cold that they can't 
stop to tie a shoe-lace without beginning to freeze, and 
in the next breath has them spending hours up trees 
waiting for stray Indians to pass underneath. Maybe 
they built a fire among the branches. 
This same writer speaks of an Indian sewing the 
shapeless bag of bark which was afterward to become 
a canoe and of making deadfall traps at camp out of 
wood and rawhide. He also speaks of boiling deer 
brains and using the liquor to remove the hair from 
deer skins. It is many years since I saw a birch, but 
when I was a boy the frame of a canoe was made first 
and the bark put on afterward, piece by piece. 
Deadfall traps are made right where they are set, and 
no rawhide used. And all the Indians I ever saw tan- 
ning used the brains to rub into the hide after the hair 
and grain had been removed. Buckskin can be made 
with nothing but water and elbow grease. 
Take a deer skin and soak it in water until the hair 
starts, then take of? the hair and grain with any kind 
of a blunt knife. Then wash the skin in water until 
the glue is all out, work it dry, and you have buckskin. 
But it will dry hard every time it gets wet. Rubbing 
in brains, or any fat, for that matter, is simply a filling, 
like oil in leather. 
I note that at a late meeting of the Campfire Club 
the old, old yarn was sprung about a cougar sucking 
the blood of its prey. 
Now, I have examined hundreds of carcasses of ani- 
mals killed by cougars and never saw any indication of 
blood sucking. A cougar nearly always kills by biting 
the back of the neck, and it mauls its prey just as a cat 
does a mouse. I never had the luck to see a cougar 
make a kill, but a friend of mine once saw a cougar 
catch a doe. He said that the cougar landed on the 
doe's back, smashing it to the ground, and commenced 
chewing its neck and shoulders. The doe thrashed 
around, bawling and making an awful racket, and my 
friend ran up and shot the cougar. The doe was too 
badly hurt to live, so he had to kill her also. 
It is quite common to find horses that have been 
attacked by cougar and escaped, and the claw and teeth 
marks will always be on the sides and back. 
If people will set themselves as authority, for heaven's 
sake let them study their subjects. 
Wm. Wells. 
Wei.ls, Wyoming. 
What is the E^gf? 
A friend gave me a bird's egg this morning that was 
found on the ground in a pasture lot; there was no nest. 
In size it is .76X.Q9 of an inch, about midway between 
a Wilson and wood thrush egg. The color is the light 
blue of the bluebird's egg. On emptying it I found it 
perfectly fresh, and it must have been dropped the day it 
was found, Monday, April 18, for on Saturday morning 
there was nearly a foot of snow on the ground, most of 
which remained until Monday. On Saturday and Sunday 
mornings the thermometer was at 20 degrees above zero. 
We have had no birds breeding here in April whose 
egg.<; are of the size and color as the one found; and as 
yet but a few migratory species have been seen. I can 
name only the bronze grackle, redwing, bluebird, robin 
and song sparrow, up to this morning, when I saw the 
first brown creeper. 
I went out two weeks ago to-day to look for snipe and 
saw no signs of them. Have heard only of two being 
taken, and they were taken near Buffalo. We had four 
inches of snow yesterday morning. I saw it being carted 
off Main street this morning, and there is plenty to be 
seen from my window as I write this. 
J. L. Davison. 
LocKPORT, April 20. 
Cfows in Town. 
HoRNELLSviLLE, N. Y., April i8. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have always been interested in birds, but until 
last Friday, the 15th, I never saw crows act like turkey 
buzzards. On that day I saw, from 9 A. M. until noon, 
between twenty and thirty crows right in the center of 
the city, some in trees, some along Cancadea Creek, some 
in the park, others in lots and back yards. 
I suppose they had just come north, were very hungry; 
finding fields frozen and no grub or grubs, they came into 
the city for something to eat. A crow is shy, and I think 
they munst have been very hungry. 
That night we had a blizzard, seven inches of snow and 
good sleighing the i6th. J. Otis Fellows. 
Is it a Flicker? 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In reply to "F. M.," whose question, "What bird is 
this," appears in your issue of April 23, I would say that 
to the best of my knowledge it is a flicker, also called a 
highhole. The_ flicker makes a sound such as the one he 
describes, and is a large bird, showing, as he flies away 
from you, a large white spot on his back. C. L. A. 
Englewood, N. J , April 20. 
Philadelphia, April 2^.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
What bird is this? Query from F, M. in last issue. 
Answer : Flicker or highholder. I am afraid F. M. lacks 
the advantages of having been born in the country. Hope 
they will become better acquainted. E. 
Spring fashions for Parisian dogs include many novel- 
ties, such as colored cambric night shirts, rubber shoes, 
thick, fluffy dressing gowns to wear after a bath, straw 
and felt hats, special wicker sofas, cushioned and be- 
aecked with garlands and ribbons; nail files, ear picks, 
powder boxes and vaporizers. 
At the dogs' dressmakers' in the Palais Royal I noticed 
this week a white, hairy cloth overcoat, bordered with 
white mohair galons, a red velvet collar and a pocket for 
the handkerchief. — New York Herald, 
