Nov. 19, 1904.] 
FOREST AND STREAM* 
427 
the light so that I could get a fairly good sight, and fired, 
and down came the bird. When we returned to the camp 
we had the laugh on the boys, and we roasted and ate the 
bird. 
While going to Republic in April, I camped at Thirty- 
Mile Creek, where there is a service bottom, and there 
are probably a hundred acres in the flat. It began raining 
soon after we had put up our tent; it rained a little all 
night, and was raining in the morning when I woke up, 
and there was one continual drumming without any in- 
termission. I never had heard such a thing in any place 
where the ruffed grouse are found. This fall, when I 
camped there again, we were out but a few minutes and 
got six birds, all we needed for our breakfast; we had 
killed all we needed for supper in traveling along the 
road. Deer are well driven back from the road, and it is 
late in the winter before they come in very near. 
Bear are about as plentiful as usual. The salmon have 
been very scarce, and some nights the Indians catch only 
three and four. They seem to be a food of the past. A 
few years ago I went past the trap one morning, and the 
night before they had taken 2,600 out, and there were 
some fine ones. But say what you will, trout is preferred 
by Lew Wilmot. 
Sleeping Ducks. 
Editor Forest and Stream; 
Mention has been made in your columns of the alleged 
unwisdom of using the "universal negative." In a discus- 
sion, most men resent it. Yet no man ever really saw a 
live and foliaged tree, as Ruskin has amply demonstrated. 
Likewise, no man ever saw exactly the same rainbow 
in any two consecutive instants. This is also true of 
clouds. And no two men, even when standing side by 
side, ever saw the same rainbow at the same instant. "No 
man knows it all," and often not even some part of that 
all of which he may feel very sure he has entire knowl- 
edge. Let the doubter look through a field-glass up and 
down a stream for five minutes, and note how much more 
he sees — proving the universal law of obscurity under 
which we live. 
The above "universal negatives" are thrown in here 
just for good measure. And I now repeat what I have 
as yet only used as a general denial, but this time as a 
"universal negative," that no man ever saw two or more 
dusky mallards (Anas obscura) all asleep together. 
Of course, this is intended to apply only to dusky mal- 
lards that are in a wild, free, healthy state, like the dusky 
mallards that Mr. Burroughs declared were all _ sound 
asleep— and not to birds dead, or also dressed and in cold 
storage; nor to those that possibly might be drugged or 
poisoned by abnormal air or food. 
' The following appeared in your columns last week : 
"They proved to be two black ducks, * * * and their heads 
were so flat that as one lay partly behind the other, they looked 
like a short piece of a log. After watching them a while, I went 
to camp, got my gun, and shot one with my rifle barrel. If 
those ducks were not sound asldep, then I have never seen any- 
thing asleep in my life." 
If two or more "black" ducks were seen "asleep" (one 
of them being shot while asleep!), and which were with- 
out a sentinel, then one or both of those ducks were not 
dusky mallards. It would be interesting to know just 
what the markings on those ducks were. 
How can this shooter know that "black" ducks a rifle- 
shot away were both dusky mallards "sound asleep ?" One 
or both of these "black ducks" might have been the or- 
dinary brown mallard (Anas boschas), the shoveler 
(Spatula clypeata), which is of a dark olive brown, or 
the black scaup (Fuligula marila), or easily one of 
several varieties of the scoters ; for all of them look black 
when "squatted" on ice. Both or one of them might have 
been of the numerous black hybrids or sub-species, or 
Specimens of the brown sprigtail. 
As Mr. Ackert has proffered a full exhibition next 
March of two or more dusky mallards "slumbering" 
while "standing on one foot with their heads under their 
wings," it is preferred to accept this proof when_ both 
sides will be present. When the proof is really furnished, 
it will be fully acknowledged here as to that special fea- 
ture of this discussion, and to which gentlemen are, for 
manifest reasons, so eager to confine it. 
Meanwhile, if Mr. Ackert will be my guest from next 
Chri-stmas eve to the morning of January 2, I will take 
him over the Southern Railway to Goldsboro and Beau- 
fort, and thence by boat to Ocracoke, on the outer North 
Carolina coast, east of Pamlico Sound, where he shall be 
made comfortable at The Hunters' Rest. But he must 
leave his gun at home, and use only field glasses, and the 
blinds on wheels, behind which he can advance to within 
fifty yards of redheads, mergansers, brants, and thousands 
of dusky mallards. Probably he can also do this with 
wild geese there. It will be strange if he does not be 
favored with seeing from one to four square miles of 
water "black" with ducks. He will see along shore and 
on the water dusky mallards, many "asleep," in pairs, 
quartettes, families and flocks, but will never see even 
two together without one is a sentinel for the other. 
And he must write and publish here a detailed account of 
his observations of groups, pairs, etc., of dusky mallards, 
and whether he saw any of the birds without sentinels. 
He could not fail to not only oblige, but greatly interest 
readers. I will agree to write nothing about the trip. 
When, during many years, a man has observed dusky 
mallards, I insist that by perfectly legitimate reasoning 
he may safely state the above "universal negative." And 
meanwhile, here are a few little extracts from what the 
real naturalists have said about dusky mallards: 
"Shy and vigilant. Many sentinels are seen on the look- 
out while the- rest are asleep."— Audubon, Vol. VI., pp. 
247-248. 
"So vigilant that on the least alarm from the sentinel," 
etc.— Bailey's "Our Own Birds," p. 240. 
But the ex-president of the American Ornithologists' 
Union, Mr. Elliott, is the present real authority on our 
wildfowls. His several books, and his work for the 
Smithsonian Institution, are well known. His work, 
"Wildfowl," published in 1898 by F. C. Harper, has this 
to say of dusky mallards : "Of all water fowl, it is one 
of the most cunning and suspicious. It has a keen sense 
of smell ; and no matter how well one may be concealed 
in a carefully constructed blind, if the wind blows toward 
the advancing bird, it will detect the sportsman's presence 
and remove itself from the dangerous neighborhood. It 
is rare when it will even settle among decoys. Watchful- 
ness and ability to detect danger," etc. (p. 106). And he 
says of even the common mallard, a much less vigilant 
bird than the "duskies," that "They are in the habit of 
taking a nap in the sun's rays, having one or more of 
their number, however, to act as sentinels, and announce 
any approaching danger." (p. 103.) 
Until after March, no further mention of this matter 
will be made by me. L. F. Brown. 
Birds ia the Zoo— A Suggestion* 
While the collection of birds of prey in Brortx 
Park is fairly representative, that of song birds,_it must 
be confessed, is very poor. Whoever has visited the 
Zoological Gardens in London, or the Jardin des 
Plantes in Paris, cannot fail to have been struck Jby 
the contrast offered in this respect. Of course our in- 
stitution is new, and it may be, a^fl no doubt it is. the 
intention of the management to add materially to the 
present collections, not only of birds, but of beasts, as 
facilities for their proper care are provided. In this 
connection I should like to make a suggestion. 
It is a well-known fact that when birds are crowded 
together, no matter how musical they may be individu- 
ally, they make only a shrill discord, which is very 
trying to the nerves. But apart from the effect upon 
us it is a gross injustice to the song birds to herd them 
(if I may use the expression) with a lot of noisy 
"trash." I recollect that during a visit to the Zoo 
in Philadelphia, I was moved to something very like 
indignation at hearing the British blackbird — that beauti- 
ful poetic minstrel — endeavoring to sing while a South 
American jay kept squawking and a West Indian rail 
blowing his fish horn, as it seemed in envious derision. 
I repeat it is a gross injustice to birds like the 
British blackbird, to condemn them to such company. 
Some people, I suppose, imagine that birds have no 
taste or feelings. Nothing could be further from the 
truth. We do not find song birds in a state of nature 
keeping company with the rabbit, or pouring forth their 
songs when they are liable to be interrupted by jarring 
sounds. How has our best songster come to have 
earned the designation of Hermit? No, indeed; song 
birds are not indifferent to their company or environ- 
ment, but, on the contrary, are exquisitely sensitive 
and select. And we may well believe, too, that their 
music is a source of infinite joy and consolation to 
them. Rob them of it (as we virtually do when we 
place them side by side with mere vulgar makers of 
noise), and we do them a worse injustice than in de- 
priving them of their liberty. 
Now why, in the new arrangements at the Zoo, 
should not the famous songsters at least have little 
separate buildings or pavilions for themselves? There 
they could be happy, or as happy as it is possible for 
them to be in confinement, and then we could hear and 
study their individual lays in all their purity. How 
delightful in the springtime to have the bulbul from 
Persia singing in one pavilion; the nightingale from 
England in another, and so on! 
I confess I have sometimes doubted of the benefit to 
be derived from gazing on a wild animal in captivity, 
but I have never doubted of the beneficent influence 
of birds. Their grace and beauty appeal to the aesthetic 
sense and their songs awake in us a joyous unison 
with nature, as it were. Assuredly when man comes to 
be perfectly civilized, as I trust he will some day, he 
will owe it not a little to music and not least to that 
variety of it which springs so marvelously from the 
untutored throats of birds. F. M. 
New York. 
Monarch, the Big Bear. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
One of our essayists — Lowell, I think — said concern- 
ing plagiarism that if someone found a way for trans- 
muting lead into gold, no one would be particular about 
where he got his lead. This is not a reflection upon Mr. 
Allen Kelly's writings, for I have never heard of his 
"Bears I Have Met, And Others," but have ordered it 
by this mail, apropos of the controversy. My friend Mr. 
Barnum used to say to his critics, "Say what you please 
about me, but do not leave me alone." We must allow 
as much literary license to Thompson Seton as we do to 
Kipling. Literary genius is something that we have to 
accept as a whole, just as we buy a basket of peaches, 
and when an author has vogue he leads out into the light 
a lot of ideas that otherwise would have to shine in the 
shade. Thompson Seton's Redruff in "Wild Animals I 
Have Known" is recognized by the few who read my 
"Bonasa Umbellus, Rex" in a collection of sketches that 
was published a few years ago. That volume received 
more than one hundred press notices of such favorable 
character that f@r a while I associated only with celebri- 
ties, and always rode in a cab instead of taking the 
trolley car with the crowd. The book was displayed on 
the shelves of the Putnams and listed in their catalogues, 
but something less than fifty copies were sold, I believe, 
and this autumn publication was discontinued and the 
plates melted. Let no one think that I want literary 
fame, for I have trouble enough with my legitimate 
profession. 
On Thompson Seton's country place there is a beautiful 
stream that has wet the pens of many admiring writers. 
Where does that stream come from? From my own 
country place. The whole business starts from several 
big springs in a romantic part of my forest, but no one 
would suspect that it began from anywhere excepting 
under Thompson Seton's line fence. He is welcome to 
all of the water that runs from my land on to his, and to 
all of the lead that I can dig up for transmutation. He 
may even describe me as a rough character whose lan- 
guage is unfit for publication, and with justification, for a 
stranger looking for farm help came into the field where 
I was working not long ago and said that he wanted to 
employ me as soon as I was through with that job. And 
as to language unfit for publication, one of my bulls go.t 
loose the other day and uprooted sixteen thrifty young 
pine trees that had been ca&fully set from the nursery 
last year, and that were my especial pride. When Allen 
Kelly comes to New York again, we will hunt up Thomp- 
son Seton and get L. F. Brown to bring along a copy of 
Kipling, and we will all go over to the Metropolitan 
Club for a good dinner at my expense. 
We do not always stop to consider how much benefit 
may result from having things taken from us. Another 
one of my neighbors, Sam. Taylor, of the Rider and 
Driver, has a lot of beautiful thoroughbred horses that 
can jump ove,r things like philosophers, and when they all 
get info my garden do I object? Not a bit of it. People 
driving through the place think they are my horses, and 
that I can afford to; feed them on green pea>s and celery, 
and it gives me such standing that the bank no longer 
sends notice that my account is overdrawn. 
Then again there is often nice etiquette in such matters. 
When Caribou Charlie and I were exploring a wiW 
Labrador river we took along three canoe paddles as pro- 
vision against accident. Two Indians coming down river 
with one whole paddle and one broken one stopped to 
talk with us, and on departing the Indian who spoke Eng- 
lish said : "You haddum tree aviron ki tchiman. Me 
haddum one aviron nin tchiman. Now you gottum two 
aviron. Me gottum two aviron." It would have been a 
breach of etiquette of the country to have claimed our 
paddle. It was not a case of theft, but simply one of 
plagiarism of a paddle, and the Indians appreciating its 
fine workmanship thought more highly of us for having 
furnished it. Robert T. Morris. 
New York, Nov. f. 
Wild Paeons or What? 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
A few days ago a small telegram from Chardon, Ohio, 
appeared in a Cleveland paper giving an account of a 
flock of about 500 pigeons that had passed over this town 
of Chardon, flying south. 
I set this down at the time as being a reporter's yarn, 
and paid no more attention to it then; but since then I 
have seen a more extenddd account in two local papers, 
each account by a different correspondent, so there may 
be some truth in it after all. The best account is this 
one, given by the Corry, Pa., Leader: 
Chard©n, O., Nov. 1.— A flock of fully 500 wild pigeons passed 
over Chardon Saturday afternoon. Hundreds of people who are 
familiar with the markings of the wild pigeon witnessed the 
sight. The flock was also seen at Aquila Lake. The reappear- 
ance of these birds after an absence of twenty-three years, has 
caused considerable speculation among the sportsmen of this 
locality. Wild pigeons were last seen near Chardon in April. 
1S83. 
The last great flight of these birds in northern Ohio was wit- 
nessed in the spring of 1876. The pigeons reappeared in the 
spring of 1877, but in greatly diminished numbers. Their total 
disappearance later caused the belief to become general that the 
birds had been annihilated by market hunters. For years the 
Smithsonian Institution has had a standing offer of $1,000 for a 
single specimen of the American wild pigeon. At various times 
the presence of pigeons has been reported in remote sections of 
foreign countries, but all efforts to locate the birds in the United 
States haiie proved fruitless. 
These pigeons, if that is what they were, and I begin to 
think now that they may have been pigeons, came across 
Lake Erie from Canada. Chardon is about twenty miles 
due south of Lake Erie. Cabia Blanco. 
[These may have been passenger pigeons, but we have 
spent some time in the past running down and proving 
false similar reports, that we are disposed to' doubt it. If 
the reporters' statements about the pigeons are no more 
trustworthy than that about the Smithsonian Institution 
and its $1,000 reward, even the most enthusiastic 
naturalist is not likely to lose much sleep over the Corry 
Leader's stov-f .] 
Travels of Prairie Chickens. 
An Emporia man advances the theory that prairie 
chickens are so scarce about Emporia now because they 
migrate west every spring to hatch their young. This 
sportsman was out trying to find some the other day and 
failed, although he went clear to the Flint Hills. 
All the farmers along the way told the same story. 
Each said there was a big bunch of chickens on his farm 
until spring and they then disappeared. The farmers 
thought it was nothing strange that the chickens should 
go west to hatch their young, and are looking for chickens 
to come back next winter. 
As a matter of fact, prairie chickens are not among the 
migratory birds, but the chickens in this part of the coun- 
try seerh to be adapting themselves to conditions. This 
country is being settled up closely and put under the 
plow, and the birds want wilder territory, where their 
young will be safer than in a well settled locality. Then 
in the winter the birds come back to the cultivated coun- 
try because there is plenty of food in the fields. 
Last year the attention of sportsmen was attracted by 
great flocks of chickens that came in from the Northwest 
in the duck season. It was the first time they ever saw 
chickens migrating. A flock was seen near Americus 
which was said to have had 400 chickens in it. Last win- 
ter there were a number of flocks of chickens within four 
miles of town, which was an unusual thing. The birds 
were supposed to have come in from western Kansas to 
get the benefit of the plentiful supply of kaffin corn, 
which the chickens relish. — Emporia Gazette. 
It is astonishing how quickly the foreigner degener- 
ates in Africa. He is himself conscious of this de- 
generacy, but is apparently powerless to overcome the 
downward tendency. Climatic conditions influence the 
mental and moral as well as the physical and social 
environments. Africa is the home of some peculiar 
maladies; among the most violent are the fever, the 
ulcer,' the kra-kra, and the yaws. A stranger in coming 
to Africa is sure to have the _ African fever or its 
equivalent, which sometimes manifests itself in an ulcer 
which has been known to fasten itself upon the body 
with all its hideous consequences for more than twelve 
years. The climate and the fever leave the victim with 
his energy gone, his health impaired, and his will 
shattered. Europeans find it necessary to make trips 
to the Madeira Islands or to the continent to build 
up the waste places, for which there seems to be no 
remedy Here. 
