Oct, i, 1504.1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
279 
ggggjg 
No Panthers in Maine. 
Bangor, Me. — Editor Forest and Stream: Maine is to 
many people a howling wilderness from one end to the 
other, and the mere mention of "woods" brings to the 
minds of these fearful ones visions of ravening wolves,' 
bears and panthers, while the horrible, indescribable 
"Indian devil" lurks in the background, waiting for a 
chance to attack the unwary and inexperienced hunter 
who may be abroad unprotected. It seems to those 
acquainted with Maine's timberland territory almost 
ridiculous to attempt to ""explain away" such erroneous 
ideas, but there are so many people of intelligence in 
other directions, who give to the world such strange 
ideas concerning the recreation regions of this State, 
that one feels compelled to rise in defense of the finest 
hunting and fishing region in the Atlantic States, if not 
in the country. 
In all Maine there is not, and so far as one is able 
to ascertain never was, a real, live panther or American 
lion; and yet there are people living who tell the most 
wonderful stories of hairlifting experiences when face 
to face with enormous specimens of this lithe, strong 
but cowardly giant of American cats. In the course of 
a recent conversation with that thorough naturalist and 
hunter, Mr. Manly Hardy, of Brewer, than whom there 
is certainly no better authority on natural history of 
this State living, the writer was deeply entertained and 
interested in learning something about the occurrence 
(?) of panthers in Maine and their natural range. 
Recent letters received by Mr. Hardy indicate one 
of those periodical awakenings for information on this 
subject, which occur every few years, or as often as 
some frightened individuals report having been through 
thrilling experiences with panthers or "Indian devils." 
So thoroughly stirred was Mr. Hardy by the several in- 
quiries received, that he didn't rely upon his own 
knowledge, but wrote to some experienced hunters 
whom he knew, to see if such a thing as a panther had 
ever been seen or killed in the New Brunswick woods, 
which are naturally but a continuation of the same forest 
area. , -. ,.* *}• 
One of the letters, in making the inquiry, suggested 
that the writer had already some slight information, or 
thought that he had, since he referred to the fact (?) 
told him by a son of the late Henry Clapp, of Brown- 
ville, who in his day was famous as a hunter and 
trapper, that Henry Clapp had killed a panther and had 
a fearful fight with one once. As a matter of fact, Mr. 
Hardy knew Henry Clapp very well indeed, bought all 
his skins of him for many years, and from personal 
knowledge of the man's experiences he knew that Mr. 
Clapp had never killed a panther in the woods of Maine, 
nor indeed had he ever seen one. 
In 1852 Mr. Hardy's father began buying furs in 
Maine, and his business was continued after his death 
by his son, so that for an unbroken period of eighty 
years the present Mr. Hardy can trace the history of 
wild animal life in the woods of this State. In that 
time Mr. Hardy has been deeply interested in all ques- 
tions pertaining to the natural history of his native 
State, and has been a keen observer, as his record as 
a naturalist proves. He has heard of a great many 
cases of panthers, appearances of so-called, and of 
killing at various times of these animals, and has spent 
much time and effort to trace the stories to a begin- 
ning. In every such case the story has been proved to 
be a hoax, with a wildcat as the original, or even less 
than that. 
"In one case, occurring several years ago," says Mr. 
Hardy, "I felt as though I had something positive to 
work on: It was prominently reported in the papers 
that a certain man in Aroostook county had killed a 
panther, and that the skin of the animal was in the 
hands of an up-river taxidermist to be mounted. I 
wrote to the man, whose address was given in full in 
the reports, and he told me it was nothing of the sort; 
to pay no attention to the story; that it was the yarn 
of an ambitious Boston drummer, who had set out to 
beat a story told by a fellow salesman, and that he had 
never seen a panther, much less shot one. This," con- 
cluded Mr. Hardy, "was the closest I ever came to 
getting actual knowledge of a panther killing in Maine, 
although I have followed every report in the papers for 
years, every such case proving false when traced to its 
source." 
"Dave Libbey, of Newport," continued Mr. Hardy, 
"who writes under the name of 'Penobscot,' is certain 
that he once fired at a panther, and there is no more 
honest man living than Dave Libbey; but he didn't 
see the animal very clearly, and missed, and while 
Dave (I know him well) undoubtedly thought he saw 
and shot at an actual mountain lion, it is unreasonable 
to suppose that in all these years only one mountain 
lion has been in the Maine woods, and Mr. Libbey is 
the only hunter that has seen one." 
Of course there are lots of reported encounters with 
panthers in various parts of Maine, and the stories of 
some of those who think they have seen these fearful 
animals are enough, almost, to drive sportsmen away 
from the State altogether. But it is safe to say, that 
there is not, within the borders of the State, any animal 
from which a man need have much to fear, unless 
possibly it is a bull moose in the rutting season. Then 
he is in no mood to be trifled with, and the sensible 
hunter will give his majesty a wide berth, as then is the 
close season on moose, except toward the latter end, 
when, by the use of the call, the moose may be lured 
within shooting distance, s. 
"The only panther skin I ever saw in Maine," con- 
tinued Mr. Hardy, "was offered me on the market at 
Bangor once. As I was going along through the square 
a man who knew me, although I didn't know him at 
all, held up a panther skin and asked me what I would 
give him -for it. I was interested at once, and asked 
him where he got it, saying that I knew it couldn't 
have come from Maine. The fellow then told me that 
it had been sent him from Washington by his brother, 
who was then in that territory. 
"I once met a man who was an old hunter of 
panthers in the Rockies, and he showed me two small, 
insignificant looking hounds that he hunted them with, 
and it showed what cowards these animals are by 
nature, to know that, before I ever met him, he had 
killed thirty panthers with those dogs, and I knew of 
his killing several more before I left him. They are 
great cowards, and although they'll weigh as heavy as 
200 pounds apiece, a small dog can so cow them that 
they are at the mercy of the hunter. 
"But I don't pretend to know about New Brunswick, 
so I wrote down to Adam Moore, 'Big Ad. Moore,' we 
alwavs called him, and asked him to get the experience 
of Henry Braithwaite, another old hunter. I have 
just heard from him that he never saw a panther in 
New Brunswick, and that I can put any man down as 
a liar who claims to have ever seen one there. He 
makes it very strong, and ridicules the idea of panthers 
in the woods of the Province." 
Asked by a correspondent as to the "Indian devils" 
reported to be frequent in the woods, Mr. Hardy tells 
some very interesting things to bear out his statement 
that an "Indian devil" is any animal seen or heard in 
the woods that the person seeing or hearing can't tell 
what it is. At one time and another the woods of Maine 
have been inhabited, according to the vivid imaginations 
of superstitious woodsmen, with every dangerous ani- 
mal of tropical and far eastern countries, and the so- 
called "Indian devils" is nothing but a loupcervier-, a 
large wildcat, or a hedgehog, all of these and others 
having at times figured in "real experiences" with this 
dreaded monster of the woods of Maine. 
Herbert W. Rowe. 
Wild Life at the World's Fair. 
St. Louis.— There is scarcely a bird that flies in the air, 
a beast that walks upon the earth or a fish that swims in 
the sea water, to whatever part of the world it -may be- 
long, including even the creatures that had the hey-day 
of their existence in the prehistoric age> that is not in 
some way represented, at least in picture, effigy, skeleton 
or mounted specimen. But there is also a .goodly repre- 
sentation of living animals. The live stock exhibits are 
of extraordinary size and excellence, and wild animals 
are to be found of every kind, and from every portion of 
the globe, including several very extraordinary species 
that have never before been on exhibition in the United 
States. 
A great variety of living birds, to all extents and pur- 
poses in a free state, are exhibited by the National 
Zoological Park (under the auspices of the Smithsonian 
Institution) in Washington city, in an immense aviary 
near the Government Palace, consisting of several acres 
of ground covered with a wire netting large enough to rise 
above the tops of the trees. This is longitudinally divided 
into two compartments. Among the species represented 
in the one devoted to the larger birds are the American 
egret, snowy heron, demoiselle crane of southern Europe, 
sacred ibis of Africa, the wood ibis, white ibis, brown 
pelican, white pelican, night heron, ambriga or snake bird, 
cormorant, Canadian goose, snow_ goose and blue goose, 
and especially the roseate spoonbill, who is undoubtedly 
"the belle of the ball." On the other side are smaller 
birds, such as the nightingale, goldfinch, pine siskin, bunt- 
ing, Indian dove, Java sparrow, bullfinch, canary finch, 
California partridge and variety of wild ducks, such as the 
green-winged teal, blue-winged teal, wood duck, wander- 
ing tree duck, Java tree duck, mandarin,, pintail and mal- 
lard. Particularly striking are the exquisite blue and yel- 
low tropials from South Africa, the cardinal grosbeak, 
Australian wood pigeon, crested pigeon, white or albino 
Java sparrow, blue bird, indigo bird, red-headed wood- 
cock, and nonpareil finch. Much attention has been at- 
tracted by the curious nests built by the African red- 
billed weaver birds since they have been on exhibition. 
They are made in two parts, so as to enable the birds to 
escape with their young from monkeys, snakes, and other 
enemies. 
Elephants, camels, dromedaries and llamas are in evi- 
dence in large numbers in several of the Asiatic shows. 
E. C. Cowston, of South Pasadena, Cal., the father of the 
ostrich breeding industry in the United States, exhibits 
a herd of several score of fine ostriches, including the 
champion racing ostrich, Black Demon. 
One of the greatest attractions at the Chicago Exposi- 
tion of 1893 was the display of trained animals by Hagen- 
beck, who supplies, from his headquarters at Hamburg, 
Germany, practically all the wild beasts, both trained and 
untrained, possessed by any of the great circuses and 
menageries of America and Europe, but who had never 
previously exhibited in the United States. He has now 
returned for the first time since, with three times as many 
animals as he had then, and a show altogether superior in 
every way. Besides all the specimens to be found in the 
largest menageries, and exhibitions of animal skill, intel- 
ligence, and amenability to training far surpassing those 
to be seen in the best circuses. Hagenbeck's has several 
animals of quite unique interest, such as (to say nothing 
of the frolicsome baby elephant and other very interesting 
specimens of animal infancy) the zebrule, a cross between 
the horse and the zebra, already of commercial import- 
ance ; a very curious un-named cross between the lion and 
the tiger, and, above all, a blue-nosed mandril, a fantas- 
tically shaped and rainbow-tinted monster of the monkey 
family. 
Isolated animals are found in other parts of the Exposi- 
tion, sometimes the most unexpected ones; for exam- 
ple, the tricky little monkey that divides the honors in 
the Negrito village with the curious little Philippine pig- 
mies; but the nearest approach to the ordinary out-of- 
door zoo is the outside fish and game exhibit of Missouri, 
situated just west of the Forestry building, and under the 
charge of J. H. Ridgway, the State Superintendent of 
Fish and Game, and a brother of the celebrated Washing- 
ton ornithologist.. 
In the center is a large pond, surrounding which are 
cages containing specimens of the puma, mountain lion 
or American panther, gray wolf, gray fox, red fox, coyote, 
black bear, raccoon, opossum, woodchuck or groundhog, 
red squirrel, eagle, wild turkey, wild goose, wild duck, 
great horned owl, quail, China, English or ring-neck 
pheasant, golden pheasant, silver pheasant, and Amherst 
pheasant. The pheasants are particularly showy birds, 
familiar to the hunter, but very remarkable to those who 
have never seen them. There is in the collection an 
albino white squirrel, pure white with black eyes. 
The collection of wild turkeys is the best in the State, 
including ten fine birds captured especially for this dis- 
play, and one of them bearing traces of his capture in a 
missing leg. The ordinary rail-pen trap was used, into 
which they are baited through a hole in the ground that 
enters it from below, and which they are unable to find 
again. 
Among the wild geese are the Canada goose, Hutchins 
goose, cackling goose, greater snow-goose, lesser snow- 
goose, white-fronted goose, and blue-winged goose. The 
only other variety found in the State is the barnacle 
goose, which only comes occasionally, and is ordinarily a 
saltwater bird. 
The duck cage originally contained sixteen out of the 
twenty species in the State, and there still remain mal- 
lards, dusky ducks or black mallards, pintail, blue-winged 
and green-winged teal, baldpates, wood duck, and Texas 
tree duck. One of the mallards seems to have been missed 
in the wing-clipping bee held early in the season, and con- 
sequently flies about at will through the open top of the 
inclosure, sometimes doing sight-seeing around the Ex- 
position grounds, but more frequently swimming in the 
open pond, instead of the little arm of it to which alone 
his imprisoned comrades have access. 
The pond is inhabited chiefly by catfish and buffalo fish. 
It now contains also a sturgeon. The king of the pond 
is a large Missouri pelican, by far the most solemn and 
important looking personage to be seen in the Exposition. 
The Wapiti. 
BY W. A. WADS WORTH. 
From the Report of the New York Fisheries, Game and Forest 
Commission. 
There is no animal left on earth that compares in 
majesty and beauty with the American stag (Cervus 
canadensis), which I shall speak of as the elk "because 
everyone else does it" (an excuse for wrongdoing since 
the beginning of sin), and if he can be successfully intro- 
duced into the Adirondacks he will be the greatest addi- 
tion that can be made,,to their attractiveness. He is really 
most at home among the grassy slopes and forest glades 
of the real mountains, and may hardly take kindly to the ' 
rolling, thickly timbered country of which our State forest 
is principally composed. He wants open spaces over which 
he can roam, and succulent grasses on which he can feed, 
and the leaves, sprouts, marsh growths and lily-pads, so 
loved by the moose and deer, are not natural to him. 
It is true they were found all along the Alleghanies 
from Virginia upward, and the hat-rack in our house in the 
Genesee Valley is made of elk antlers killed there some 
sixty years ago. But western New York contained more 
glades and open spaces in its forests, and the underbrush 
was less dense than in the North Woods. They are all 
gone now, not only from our own State, but from all the 
vast expanse between there and the Rocky Mountains, and 
the great droves of thousands which many living men 
have seen, have been so broken up that elk practically 
exist in any quantity only at the Yellowstone Park, where 
they are preserved by the National Government, but 
slaughtered whenever they get outside of its limits, which 
do not extend far enough to the southward to fully take 
in their winter range. 
There is a great local pretense that they are killed off 
by "Eastern dudes," "Toorsts," "Indians," etc.; but the 
majority are taken late in the season by men who go 
into the mountains for meat for winter use, and by pot- 
hunters wanting the hides or teeth. The former have ' 
little value, but the two small tusks called the "ivories," 
found in the upper jaw, have, by a strange perversion, 
and without the approval of its officers, become fashion- 
able as a badge among some of the members of a well- 
known society. 
So many a noble beast has died in the snow, leaving 
head, hide and carcass to rot untouched, to furnish a fool- 
ish ornament to some fat and worthy club man who never 
saw forest, mountain, or camp-fire, and is so ignorant of 
the lore of his own fraternity as not to know the differ- 
ence between the great prehistoric Irish elk, from which 
it derives its name, and the American wapiti, which is 
technically no elk at all. 
We have heard so much of the sport of elk hunting 
from all sorts of writers from the President down, that 
it seems ungracious to find fault with it. But they are 
a very large animal, a naturally tame and stupid animal, 
and a gregarious animal. With the wind in my favor, and 
by keeping absolutely still, I have had a herd browse up so 
close that I could have touched them with my hand ; and 
during the rutting season the bulls will, if alone, 'come 
trotting up to even a very poor imitation of their "whis- 
tle," or keep on answering it if with the herd. 
I do hope that if introduced here it will be as a "beast 
