April, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
191 
However, the gull saw me coming and 
made off while the duck flopped ashore, 
using its wings and legs in the process. 
The bird crawled under a stump and I 
had no difficulty in catching it. It was 
a young hen pintail. The gull had pecked 
one large and two smaller holes on the 
lower part of the back. 
On dressing the bird I noticed that 
there was a red mark on the upper part 
of the back, undoubtedly caused by the 
blow from the gull’s wing. I brought 
the bird in and showed it to “Uncle Bill” 
Milliman, known to many Detroit hunt- 
ers and with whom I stay when on my 
hunting trips. 
He can vouch for the truth of the 
story in so far as he saw the duck which 
was the victim of the gull’s attack. 
From my observation I would say that 
the ducks are not, as a general thing, 
afraid of the gulls, but when a gull 
sweeps down on a bunch of ducks in an 
unmistakably hostile attitude there can 
be no doubt that they are then afraid 
and it doesn’t take them long to get out 
and going. 
Paul F. Bartling, Michigan. 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
I N answer to Mr. Harlow’s question as 
to whether gulls frighten ducks or 
not, it has been my experience that they 
do not. 
Near here is a marsh of about ten 
acres, which is divided from the salt 
water by a narrow strip of beach. This 
marsh is very shallow and a great many 
mallards, teal, butterballs, and bluebills 
come in to feed, and never have I seen 
the time when there were no gulls in, 
either flying over or swimming about. 
I have seen at least a hundred in here 
at once. The ducks do not seem to pay 
any attention to them. Gulls sometimes 
feed among a bunch of ducks and I have 
often seen a duck light in a bunch of 
gulls sitting on the water. 
Jack Templin, Washington. 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
Y OUR valuable paper has been in the 
family since I can remember; my 
father having subscribed for it the year 
I was born, which is 37 years ago. When 
the “Boss” gets through with it he 
passes it along to the boys. The Forest 
and Stream made a good sport of dad. 
When we boys were 9 and 11 years old 
we had our first guns — single barrels 
breech loaders. They were the best guns 
we ever owned and we have had several 
good ones since. 
I am particularly interested in the 
letter of Mr. Harlow of Minn., regard- 
ing ducks and gulls. Thirty years of 
my life were spent on the shores of Lake 
Huron, in the center of one of the best 
hunting sections in the lower part of 
Michigan. During that time I have 
done considerable duck hunting and 
have had considerable opportunity to 
study the habits of ducks and gulls. In 
this part of the Universe the ducks, all 
breeds, and gulls “run together.” In 
the earlier days I had seen great flocks 
of ducks resting and feeding in the open 
water, invariably accompanied by gulls, 
flying and swimming, all seeming to live 
in perfect harmony. Especially does 
this seem to be so in the late fall and 
early spring. 
In regard to ducks returning to the 
place from which they have been fright- 
ened. Ducks, of all kinds, will often re- 
turn to the place from which they have 
been frightened; and especially is this 
so in the early part of the season before 
they have been shot at. I have had 
bluebills decoy to within 75 ft. of an 
open row boat and out in the open water. 
I have also had them circle twice over 
decoys and shot down one each time 
around. This circle was made around 
a rice bed, about a half mile in diameter, 
in which I was hidden. 
R. G. Hartingh, Michigan. 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
R EFERRING to Mr. F. D. Harlow’s 
letter about ducks and gulls in your 
January issue, I can say that from my 
own personal experience here the gulls 
do not annoy the ducks. I have been in 
the duck marshes at least three times a 
week since the first of January and have 
seen many gulls flying about at all times, 
but even the ducks that were resting on 
The smile on the face of the Puma 
the open water did not seem to mind the 
gulls flying over them, and my own live 
decoys would only look up and quack in 
a friendly way when one came near. 
Hr. Herbert Gardner of Colorado 
Springs in his book Come Duck Shooting 
With Me, however, mentions in one of 
his stories that a gull attacked one of 
his wounded birds that fell at a distance 
from his blind when he was shooting on 
Bear River in Utah, so there may be 
some gulls that do annoy ducks. Here, 
however, as I have said before, the ducks 
and gulls seem perfectly friendly. 
George D. Canfield, South Carolina. 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
1 HAVE had experiences similar to 
those of F. D. Harlow of Minnesota. 
The duck shooters here consider the 
gulls a nuisance as the gulls flying high, 
can see inside the gunning punts or 
blinds and will give a note of alarm 
which causes the ducks to fly. The ducks 
do not appear to notice the gulls unless 
the alarm note is given. I do not think 
the ducks are afraid of the gulls as I 
have often seen them feeding and rest- 
ing on the water together. 
Aaron Marden, Maine. 
RED SQUIRREL FUR 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
N OW that very high prices are being 
paid for furs of all sorts it might 
be well to draw attention to the fact 
that the red squirrel has a very beauti- 
ful skin and that the fur is durable. 
Previously the red squirrel has been 
overlooked because of its comparatively 
small size but it is larger than the mole, 
the skin of which is now bringing very 
high prices and is nearly as large as the 
ermine. 
The advantage of employing red squir- 
rel skins would apparently be two-fold. 
First, decorative value, whatever that 
•may be, and second, disposal of a very 
serious enemy of bird life. The red 
squirrel has been called the tree rat on 
account of its destructiveness. 
The naturalist must keep in mental 
reserve any attempt to destroy the bal- 
ance of nature. One never knows to 
what extent a large withdrawal of any 
animal from the field will bring about 
reactions which in themselves are un- 
desirable. So far as we can see at the 
present time the withdrawal of the red 
squirrel would have the good effect of 
increasing bird life very largely. 
Robert T. Morris, New York. 
AN ACCIDENTAL LION HUNT 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
W HEN one deliberately sets out to 
hunt Mountain Lions, he is gener- 
ally fairly well prepared for the venture 
— but looking for lions and having lions 
thrust upon you are two widely different 
things. 
Out in Utah where the little town of 
Logan nestles close to the mountains, 
there are a number of gentlemen who 
occasionally scout the hills in mid-winter 
with the hope of being fortunate to bring 
back a deer, or maybe two. While on 
one of these cruises during the heavy 
snows of last winter, at a time when the 
deer would be coming down for food, 
they set forth. Their course led them 
toward Bear Lake which is the state’s 
most popular mountain resort. When 
only about eight miles out of town, they 
ran across a couple of dead deer. The 
Game Warden of that district, who was 
a member of the party, began looking 
around for a reason for the killing. The 
reason was there alright — a good sized 
mountain lion — perched on the limb of 
a tree almost directly over him. He 
took a shot at it and missed, but killed 
it at the second try as it was jumping 
from one tree to another. 
One of the hunters returned to Logan 
for steel traps. When the traps ar- 
rived they were baited and set in the 
likeliest looking spots and left for the 
night. In the morning one of the traps 
held fast the snarling, vicious, beauty, 
shown in the photograph and which, by 
the way, is one of the most perfect 
specimens of the Puma, or American 
Mountain Lion, ever caught. 
H. A. Kemble, New York. 
