261 
June, 1922 
get cither 100 per cent, white or some 
with many white feathers. I always kill 
any of these birds when they are hatched, 
as they are so conspicuous on the fields 
they generally get caught by hawks. 
Some years ago when I was in Hungary 
I raised four or five hundred white ones 
every year by order of my employer so 
as to make a variety in the bag with 
gold, amherst, reeve, versicolor and ring- 
I necks of which I raised from thirty-five 
to forty-five thousand each year. 
Naturally the hen birds always keep 
away from cocks as much a^ possible, 
but they are found around the poultry 
yards in winter. As to crossing in a wild 
state with leghorns or any other variety 
of domestic fowls, I am quite sure they 
will not do so. 
■ The picture you gave of the white 
bird shows that it is a true pheasant. 
Your correspondent says they have so 
many ear-marks of the leghorn that they 
are unquestionably hybrid. I would like 
him to point out any departure from the 
true pheasant in the picture, even to the 
horns at back of head, which birds show 
during the breeding season. The way to 
solve the mystery of the white pheasant 
is to kill all the white cocks and intro- 
duce fresh blood. You can turn into 
your game preserve as many leghorn 
cocks as you wish and you will get very 
few birds with white feathers. 
I read a letter last season from Wash- 
ington which stated that some white or 
partly white birds had been hatched in a 
Ipheasantry where no fowls of any de- 
scription were near. 
It always occurs especially when they 
are inbred. I raised seven thousand 
pheasants last season, and I probably 
hatched from them thirty or forty that 
were part white, which I killed, as they 
drew vermin to rearing fields. 
Owing to the war there were no ])heas- 
uits imported for a few years, and most 
if the birds were getting inbred. 
Tom Nash, Ohio. 
BUCK LAW IN MICHIGAN 
T he One-Buck Law went into effect 
in Michigan last year and it repre- 
sents the tightest restriction that has ever 
existed here with respect to deer hunt- 
ing. Of course, there were many at 
lirst who were opponents to even this 
limitation, but gradually public opinion 
is becoming more favorable for a con- 
cinuation of the law. 
I enclose a picture of a buck’s head, 
the antlers having duplicate sets of 
prongs. A number of hunters have re- 
ported seeing similar antlers but this is 
;he first I have seen, and I have lived 
in the woods of the Upper Peninsula 
since 1884. 
In the glass eye of the deer head, by 
observing closely you can distinguish 
:hree men. These are the photographer, 
;he taxidermist and the writer, who were 
.mconscious that they were being photo- 
graphed at the time. 
The buck that carried the largest head 
brought in last fall was wounded late 
one afternoon and was tracked until 
idafk. Early the next morning the tracks 
I'vere followed and when the buck was 
found it was discovered’ that wolves had 
1 
FOREST AND STREAM 
overtaken it in the night and devoured 
a large portion of the body. 
A Sportsmen’s Association was organ- 
ized in the Upper Peninsula last Decem- 
ber and since then associations or clubs 
are being organized in practically every 
town. Our object is to unite with the 
sportsmen of lower Michigan to obtain 
unity of action relative to game laws. 
A more rigid enforcement of game laws 
is the demand of local sportsmen at the 
present time. Willia.m Coxibear. 
Michigan. 
A Michigan buck 
PIN-TAILED GROUSE IN 
MONTANA 
Dear Forest and Stre.\m : ^ 
'T'HE pin -tailed grouse flourishes to 
a remarkable degree on the Crow 
Indian Reservation in Montana. 
In the fall of 1905, General Funston 
^•isited Fort MacKenzie at Sheridan, 
Wyoming, and as he was very fond of 
grouse shooting I had the pleasure of 
taking him to the Indian Reservation, 
after securing a permit from the Indian 
agent. 
We went to a place named Lodge 
Grass, Montana, where I had secured the 
services of two Indians with horses and 
wagons. The General, with one Indian 
and team, hunted up one side of Lodge 
Grass Creek while I hunted on the o])i>o- 
site side with the other Indian. 
We met at noon, according to agree- 
ment, and found that we had each se- 
cured our limit. 
I asked the General how many grouse 
he had flushed, and he replied that he had 
been making a rough estimate of about 
three thousand. I probably had started 
up as many on my side of the stream. 
Later in the fall the General and I 
had another hunt over the same ground 
for two days and secured a large num- 
ber, which the General distributed among 
those at headquarters. 
Early in the winter the General wired 
to know if there were any birds left, and 
I replied that the Indians said there 
were “heap chickens" on l.odgc Grass 
Creek, but many more on some (Uher 
streams. 
On the third hunt the General and my- 
self bagged all we could use, hunting 
over c.xactly the same ground as on the 
two previous occasions. .\s the temj)cra- 
ture was below zero the dead birds froze 
solid, and 1 kept some of them for three 
months, and we thought the longer we 
had kept them the better the flavor. 
I herc were no doubt millions of these 
birds on the reservation ;it that time. 
The Indians did not eat them, as they 
had a superstition that they might "go 
blind” by so doing. Their main food 
being cattle, as it was formerly the buf- 
falo. .small fry ditl not interest them. 
This region is well suited to the gron.se. 
as there is more wild fruit grown here 
than at any other ])lace in the country, 
and the birds have a great variety of 
food, which they take in rotation. 
.\t i)rcsent there has been a closed sea- 
son on these birds for two years, and 
they are multiplying rapidly. 
It is common now to see flocks of fifty 
or more around the straw-stacks on the 
farms. .V ranchman counted over 200 in 
one flock. 
There has been some talk of introfluc- 
ing the mongolian pheasant in this sec- 
tion of the country. .Some objection has 
arisen, as it is thought that these larger 
birds would exterminate the grouse. 1 f 
this is the case it would be a great mis- 
take to do so. as there is no finer game 
bird than the pin-tailed grouse, and it is 
better able to maintain itself than any 
other bird, as it is acclimated to the ex- 
isting conditions. 
Edward Gillett, W’yoming. 
HUNTING COONS IN 
MISSOURI 
Dear Eore.st and Strea.m ; 
F all the sports that the w ritcr has 
ever followed, there is none more 
thrilling than hunting the coon with a 
good coon-hound. But here in Missouri, 
where coons were once very plentiful, 
they are now almost too scarce to hunt 
unless you have a dog that understands 
the coon and his ways. On account of 
the scarcity of game it is hard to train 
dogs here as they should be trained, ’t'et 
we can still enjoy the good old s|)ort bv 
buying dogs from some section where 
coons are plentiful enough to train them. 
^\’e have had a law here in Missouri 
for the last few years protecting all fnr- 
bearers from January dOth to November 
1st. and this is helping to build up the 
supply. 
Last fall I bought "Rock," a sonthi rn 
coon-hound, from the Blue Ridge I-'arm 
Kennels, Blue Ridge. Georgia, through 
the Forest and Stre.vm Keniul Depart- 
ment. and he has proved to be the be-t 
dog I ever owned, lie has one of the 
best noses I ever heard of being on a 
coon do.g of any kind, and is one of the 
fastest I ever saw. Even though coons 
are .scarce here, monev could not luiv 
•■■Rnek." 
On one of our hunts we went out on 
the Fabius River in one of the best coon 
(Continued on f'oge 2S7) 
