490 
PUREST AND STREAM 
[Dec. io, 1904. 
plained a series of lantern slides showing the different 
stages of growth of the grouse from the chick to adult 
prumage. She stated that the "young became very tame- 
eating from the hand — and that two adult wild birds 
placed in the inclosure with the others soon showed no 
fear. In a short time it was impossible to distinguish 
them, either in plumage or habits, from "those raised in 
confinement. . , 
On Friday after adjournment of the Union, Mr. Harold 
Bowditch, with other local ornithologists, conducted a 
party to Ipswich, an historic locality for bird students. 
The social features of the congress just closed will long 
be remembered, for nothing could exceed the cordial wel- 
come shown by the local committee and by the members 
of the Nuttall Ornithological Club. 
The next annual meeting will be in New York city, in 
November, 1905. 
Following is a list of the papers read at the sessions: 
"A Review of the Gulls Which Have Light-Colored 
Primaries." Jonathan Dwight, Jr. r New York city 
"An Untenable Theory of Bird Migration." Wells W. 
Cooke, Washington, D.C. 
"Regurgitative Feeding of Nestlings." Irene G. 
Wheelock, Evanston, 111. 
"The Direction of Flight in the Fall Migration at New 
Haven." Louis B. Bishop, New Haven, Conn. 
"Some Interesting 1904 Bird Songs." Henry Oldys, 
Washington, D. C. 
"The Status of Helminthophila leucobronchialis and 
Helminthophila lazvrencei," Louis B. Bishop, New 
Haven, Conn. 
"Wear in Its Relation to Subspecies." Jonathan 
Dwight, Jr., New York city. 
"The Psychological Conditions of Bird Study." Wm. 
R. Lord, Rockland, Mass. 
"Some Disappearing Birds and Suggestions for Their 
Protection." E. H. Forbush, Wareham, Mass. 
"Florida Notes." Illustrated by lantern slides. Frank 
M. Chapman, New York city. 
"The Land Birds of Oregon and Salifornia." Illus- 
trated by lantern slides. Wm. L. Finley, Portland, 
Oregon. 
"Experiments in Rearing Ruffed Grouse in Confine- 
ment. Illustrated by lantern slides. C. F. Hodge, 
Worcester, Mass. 
"Some Strange Bird Notes— A Mystery." E. H. For- 
bush, Wareham, Mass. 
"Cycmocitta cristata and Other Eastern Birds at Wray, 
Yuma County, Colorado." Horace G. Smith, Denver, 
Colo. 
"The Birds of the Southern West Indies." A. H. Clark, 
Boston, Mass. 
"Ornithology of a Churchyard." B. S. Bowdish, New 
York city. 
"The Nesting Habits of the Flamingo." Illustrated by 
lantern slides. Frank M. Chapman, New York city. 
"The Sea Birds of the Oregon Coast." Illustrated by 
lantern slides. Wm. L. Finley, Portland, Oregon. 
Exhibition of Lantern Slides. Wm. L. Baily, Ardmore, 
Pa. 
"Illustrated Readings from Thoreau's Journals." H. W. 
Gleason, Boston, Mass. 
"Experiments With Nesting Boxes." Illustrated by 
lantern slides. E. H. Forbush, Wareham, Mass. 
"Report of the Chairman of the Committee on the Pro- 
tection of North American Birds." Wm. Dutcher, New 
York city. 
"Observations on the Birds of the Sandhill Region of 
Nebraska."^ Illustrated by lantern slides. Robert H. 
Wolcott, Lincoln, Nebraska. 
"The Season's Experiences with Shore Birds, Herons, 
and Water Fowl." Illustrated by lantern slides. Herbert 
K. Job, Kent, Conn. 
Ffom the Sportsman's Viewpoint. 
None of the papers and illustrated lectures of the meet- 
ing^ appealed quite so strongly to sportsmen as that eluci- 
dating the experiment by Prof. C. F. Hodge, of Clark 
University, Worcester, in the rearing of partridges. A 
young lady told the story of the Professor's success in 
raising grouse from the egg, and teaching wild birds to 
eat from his hand. Some of the pictures showed the de- 
velopment of the captured chicks, picked from the shell 
which recently inclosed them. At least a score of views 
were required to bring the birds to maturity. They were 
shown "dusting" themselves in the earth, stretching their 
necks for grapes, of which they are very fond; standing 
on the Professor's knee and eating from his hand; mak- 
ing music on a log (drumming); strutting about with 
widespread tail, and neck feathers puffed out. Many men 
have _ tried the experiment of domesticating the 
partridge, but hither to without success, and so 
the belief has become general that the bird is 
untamable. Prof. Hodge has been able in a single day to 
induce wild birds by the example set them by the home- 
reared ones to jump to his knee and eat grain, beechnuts, 
grapes and other things. The bird shows wonderful 
quickness in discerning an enemy, but when it is sure of 
kind treatment is not averse to human society. Your 
readers who have visited the island in Rangeley Lake 
owned by Mr. Dickson, of Philadelphia, where gunning is 
prohibited, can testify that the grouse there are almost as 
tame as barnyard fowl. Many have flown over from the 
mainland to this place of refuge, and now in summer they 
often show themselves on the piazza looking for crumbs 
or grain. Not long ago one took a look into the upstairs 
part of the boat house and was picked up by one of the 
men, and when he set the bird on the ground outside he 
shook his feathers unconcernedly and walked away in the 
most deliberate manner possible. All sportsmen will re- 
joice if Prof. Hodge will continue his experiments until 
he is able to "blaze the way" for the rearing of grouse 
in captivity — "a consummation devoutly to be wished." 
On Thursday afternoon was held a joint meeting of the 
Audubon Society and Ornithologists' Union, at which 
Prof. C. B. Cory presided. The chief feature was the re- 
port of Dr. Wm. Dutcher, of New York, who spoke for 
the National Committee on the Protection of North 
American birds. He explained the objects for which the 
Audubon societies are working. Its methods are by lec- 
tures, holding meetings, distributing educational literature 
in reference to the aesthetic and economic value of birds 
and animals, promoting comprehensive and uniform legis- 
lation, and the employment of wardens to protect colonies 
of birds during the breeding season. He said : "I am glad 
to be able to present the best report of work done since 
the organization of the society." Some of its main fea- 
tures are the following: The adoption of the model law 
in Louisiana and Mississippi, thus helping to close the gap 
in the coast States ; the organization of an active, aggres- 
sive Audubon Society, now doing splendid work in Cali- 
fornia; a largely increased membership in the societies of 
many States; a large bird reservation, including seven 
islands, in the Gulf of Mexico made by President Roose- 
velt at the request of the national association. Thirty- 
five wardens were employed during the year, and the 
colonies of birds guarded by them show a remarkable in- 
crease, not having been disturbed by hunters or eggers. 
These wardens were located, ten in Maine, one in Massa- 
chusetts, two in New York, eight in Virginia, four in 
North Carolina, four in Florida, two in Oregon, one each 
in Texas, Michigan, and Louisiana. A special warden 
has been placed in charge of the reservation above men- 
tioned. Literature has been sent out to agriculturists and 
the public schools. Illustrated lectures have been loaned 
to schools and societies. Several lecturers have been in 
the field advocating the objects of the Audubon societies. 
Most valuable aid has been rendered by the United States 
Department of Agriculture, Post-Office Department, 
Lighthouse Department, and Department of the Interior. 
_ Plans set forth for the coming year are to secure addi- 
tional legislation, to defend our laws from objectionable 
amendments, to organize additional societies, prosecute 
the educational work in every direction, and to increase 
the number of bird guards as fast as our means will per- 
mit It is also proposed to incorporate the National 
Association of Audubon Societies, that it may legally re- 
ceive bequests and gifts for carrying on its work. Mr. 
Dutcher informed the audience that a New York philan- 
thropist had already made a bequest of $100,000, and it is 
proposed to appeal to the bird lovers of the country to in- 
crease the amount to $1,000,000, the interest of this fund 
to be used for wild bird and animal protection in North 
America. 
At the morning session, Dr. T. S. Palmer, of Washing- 
ton, gave a talk on the "Prairie Chicken." Cumulative 
records were presented by colored maps showing the 
range of the bird and the methods of obtaining data. He 
expressed the opinion that the outlook for continuance 
of the species is most encouraging. In Nebraska ship- 
ments have practically ceased, and in many States a close 
season has been adopted, and all violations are followed 
up. In some States their killing has been prohibited tem- 
porarily in order to insure future abundance. In many 
markets where they used to be sold by thousands there 
are now none on sale. More are sold in Boston than 
anywhere else. Central, 
New Light Among Unnaturalists. 
In spite of all the pow-wow among the scientists 
over the new school of natural history writers, they 
seem to thrive, and one of them has just written a 
book, which even Mr. -John Burroughs cannot fail to 
commend. More than any of its predecessors, it brings 
to light the principles, or the lack of them, underlying 
the school of the "Unnaturalists" and adds to old 
acquaintances a new and notable "Book of Clever 
Beasts." The book is published by G. P. Putnam's 
Sons and purports to be by Miss Myrtle Reed. We 
conjecture, from internal evidence, that it has been 
edited by Miss Reed. It would have taken a very 
clever man to write it. All the higher critics of Bird- 
ville Center are at loggerheads over the authorship. 
One, a woman-hater, declares that it is much too clever 
to have been written by any mere woman. Another thinks 
that some of the incidents smack too much of those 
of other famous animals already recorded; but everybody 
who has read Mr. Thompsoii-Seton's delightful works 
knows that animals repeat themselves, else how could 
his "Wully" have been so much like Red Wull in "Bob, 
Son of Battle"? The artist at the Center, who has 
carefully studied Mr. Peter Newell' s illustrations, and 
who knows how Mr. Newell can topsy-turvey any- 
thing into anything else he pleases, reports that there 
is no cryptogram concealed in the illustrations. The 
general impression is that this is the last work of 
Mr. Sitdqwn, who very likely died of mental exhaus- 
tion, leaving nothing behind him but this manuscript, 
which has been put in order for the press by Miss 
Reed, whose name the publishers inadvertently left on 
the title-page, after the manner of a book, which has 
recently received much attention in Forest and 
Stream. 
The little book, which seems to be as veracious as 
any of the recent books on natural history, tells of 
Mr. Johnson-Sitdown's experience as a "Little Brother 
of the Woods." He lives in the forest, a quiet and 
retired life, making notes upon the creatures for whose 
lives he has obtained contracts from the publishers. 
The others have little interest for him. "I knew Hoot- 
Mon (the owl) of course — every Little Brother of the 
Woods knows Hoot-Mon — but an article on him had 
not yet been ordered, and so I made no special study 
of him." It is only later that he makes the acquaint- 
ance which ripened into such a beautiful friendship. 
"I had written about everything I knew for the maga- 
zines, and my work was still in demand, but, seemingly, 
there were no new animals." Then only does he begin 
to cultivate Hoot-Mon. He discovers the nest, "long 
and narrow, with a great bundle of feathers at one end 
for a pillow. Hoot-Mon was asleep, lying flat on his 
back, with a blanket made of rabbit skins over him, 
snoring audibly. In the bottom of the nest was a 
hare mattress. I did not disturb him, for he works at 
night and needs his sleep in the daytime." 
This thoughtfulness pervades and beautifies the book. 
Mr. Sitdown seldom fails to call attention to his kind- 
heartedness — and his jeweled repeater. "I never shot 
any more ducks," he says again, "and refused, ever 
afterward, to wear duck trousers in summertime. These 
garments are really a luxury, being made of canvas- 
back duck." 
"I do not claim that my owl was more brilliant than 
the owls of my fellow^ unnaturalists, but only that I 
had superior opportunities to study. When a Little 
Brother of the Woods sees anything that I have missed, 
I do not call him a liar, and I expect others to pay 
the same courtesy to me." 
While waiting for these compliments to be returned, 
Mr. O. Sitdown-Johnson Johnson-Sitdown — to give him 
his full -name— lived a whole winter with Hoot-Mon. 
"Often he got hungry for his own kind of food, and at 
such times I would put on some red flannel stockings 
I had made for him, without feet; a red flannel shawl, 
pinned closely at the throat, and a face-mask, also of 
red flannel, with openings for the eyes and beak and 
those wonderful ears, of which I have spoken before. 
He got so that whenever he wished to go hunting, he 
would search out these articles from the corner in the 
cabin, where they were kept — never forgetting the 
safety-pin that fastened the shawl— bring them to me 
and stand very still while I put them on." 
Later on we read of the pathetic end of Hoot-Mon. 
He twisted his head entirely off— an event not without 
precedent in the literature of the "Little Brothers." 
"I was stunned, and it was more than an hour before 
I saw how it had happened. It was my own fault; no 
one but myself was to blame. An owl will turn his 
head but never his body, and Hoot-Mon had followed 
me around the stump with fond eyes until he had 
wrung his own neck." But, as the author admits when 
speaking of Jim Crow: "Even if Jim had not been so 
very dead, I could not have saved him, for in the words 
of a rival unnaturalist, 'there are no hospitals for sick 
crows.' " 
Through such simple and unaffected accounts of 
actual^ friendship with the animals, we learn the life- 
histories of little Upsidaisi, the mouse; Jagg, the scoot- 
away goat; Snoof, the bear, Kitchi-Kitchi, the squirrel; 
Jim Crow; Hoop-la, the wonderful fox; Jenny Rag- 
tail, the rabbit; and Hoot-Mon, the owl. AH are 
intelligent and affectionate beasts, ready at any time to 
instruct and amuse their human inferiors. There is 
less of sadness in this book than in most of its sort; 
the author skillfully avoids the tearful conclusion more 
than once. "It was not pleasant," he says on one oc- 
casion, "even though the end of a wild animal is al- 
ways a tragedy. The only way to make a story of this 
kind untragic, is to quit before you get through." 
When we consider the needless tears we have all 
shed over the true animals existing only in thp im- 
agination of the unnaturalists, we first begin to realize 
how much sweetness and light are added to existence 
by this discovery of Mr. Sitdown's. We can all do just 
what he did— "quit before we get through." No more 
shall we need to pursue these harrowing tales to the 
end— we are free to leave off anywhere, even before we 
begin.^ No other group of fiction writers ever so 
terrorized their audience, compelling their readers to 
weep over the funerals of those whose wedding bells 
they had just rung! What would novel-reading result 
in, if that were insisted on. A strike, gentle readers, 
But why should we submit in the case of the loves and 
the lives of the lower animals? Are their lives any 
more inevitably tragic than ours? What is tragedy 
anyway ? 
The book under review makes an appeal to reason 
not noted in any of its predecessors; it offers some 
proof of the statements contained. Lovers of truth 
are urged not to omit the appendix. (Probably all 
books, like all men, would have appendixes if the pub- 
lishers did not cut 'em out.) 
"Realizing that much of this work must of necessity 
^eem almost incredible to all save genuine Little 
Brothers of the Woods, I have, at great expense and 
difficulty, secured for exhibition purposes, a collection 
of relics which will fully substantiate every statement 
I have made. 
"This exhibition will be an annual affair, and will be 
held in the main office of my publishers, on Nov. 31 
only. 
"Admission is free to all who hold a copy of this 
book under the left arm. Copies are not transferable. 
"The complete catalogue will be found on the fol- 
lowing pages." 
Among the exhibits we note the following: 
"A 4 — Mainspring of my jeweled repeater. 
"A 10 — Returned manuscript. A 11, A 12, A 13, the 
same. 
"E 16— Picture of me, showing crow's feet around 
eyes. 
"G 8 — Pen sketch of Jenny drawing map. 
"G 9 — Better picture of same thing — 'Wild Animals 
I Have Known,' p. 122. 
"G 20— Drawing of rabbit entertainment. 
"G 21 — Superior picture of same thing — 'Wavs of 
Wood Folk,' p. 250. 
"H 28— Rabbit's tail in alcohol. (This exhibit has the 
words, 'A tragedy,' lettered on the bottle, being the 
end of a wild animal.)" 
At last we have a succinct and satisfactory definition 
of what an animal tragedy is— it is a rabbit's tail! Mr. 
Johnson-Sitdown deserves the thanks of all seekers 
after truth for having discovered what was the will- 
o'-the-wisp which, for seven years or more, we have 
been chasing when we worked so anxiously, so tear- 
fully to get the last glimpse of the tragic end of some 
wild animal! Fanny Hardy Eckstrom. ■ 
P-. S.— The illustrations, by Peter Newell, are not 
tragic at all, even though they are killingly funny; but 
readers take their risks. 
P. S. S. — It is hoped in order to accommodate Forest 
and Stream readers, to whom this comes too late, that 
the publishers will re-open this exhibit on the second 
Saturday after Christmas, this present year. If some 
one else will head a petition to that effect, the present 
critic is willing to take the tragedy part of it. 
The Ltnnaeati Society of New Yotfc. 
Regular meetings of the Society will be held at the 
American Museum of Natural History, 77th street and 
Eighth avenue, on Tuesday evening, December 13 and 27 
at 8:15 o'clock. 
December 13— B. S. Bowdish, "Photography in Nature 
Study." Illustrated by lantern slides. 
December 27— C. G. Abbott. "A week with the Ospreys 
on Gardiner's Island." Illustrated by lantern slides. 
C. G. 'Abbott, Secretary. 
