May, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
255 
rushes on a Wisconsin lake, I suddenly 
saw the flock scatter, swimming violent- 
ly in all directions and one lone duck, 
squawking and flapping, disappeared in 
about three feet of muddy water. Nothing 
more except that I thought I heard a 
feeble squawk from the rushes. Investi- 
gating further I found a muskrat house 
hidden in the rushes, but no sign of the 
duck, either there or anywhere else on the 
surface of the lake. I searched the place 
very carefully, as my curiosity had been 
aroused by what I had seen. I did not 
take the trouble at that time to break 
down the muskrat house, but about a 
week later I rowed out to it and with a 
pitch fork tore it all to pieces. On the 
inside were many duck feathers and also 
feathers of the red-winged blackbird. The 
lat or other inhabitant of the house was 
not at home when I called so that identi- 
fication of the bandit could not be made. 
In the summer of 1902 while trout fish- 
ing on upper Sand Creek, Wyo., I plainly 
saw in the pool below a muskrat swim- 
ming under water, who approached and 
seized a duck by the leg or foot. A vio- 
lent struggle ensued, but the duck, al- 
though completely submerged twice, final- 
ly broke loose and beat it from those 
parts with g'reat speed. The struggle 
riled the water and I could not see what 
became of the muskrat. 
In November of 1919, while duck hunt- 
ing on the Willamette River, in Oregon, 
I observed a flock of ducks feeding in a 
shallow slough. Advancing cautiously I 
was chagrined to see the whole flock sud- 
denly take to the air. Almost immediate- 
ly a large muskrat broke the surface 
where the ducks had been. Apparently 
he was using the choicest cuss words in 
the rat vocabulary. 
W. E. Selbie, Oregon. 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
T WAS much interested in the letter 
1 headed “Ducks and Gulls” in the Jan- 
uary number. 
I spent last winter in California, two 
months at Santa Monica. 
This beautiful bay of Santa Monica is 
swimming with gulls on the beaches, so 
tame they feed from the hand. Out at sea, 
just beyond the combers, are flocks of 
sea ducks. Are they allowed to land and 
hunt for sand crabs? They are not; 
those gulls chase them on sight, and the 
poor little ducks scuttle back to the water 
too frightened to stay and fight. 
Gulls allow pigeons and snipe (?) to 
stay with them, but not ducks, and when 
the gulls take to the water the ducks at 
once fly away. 
I have gone from old Port Los Angeles 
to Redondo and it’s always the same — 
ducks are frightened by gulls. I have 
watched them and wondered why. 
One of the prettiest sights between 
Venice and Redondo are the hundreds of 
baby gulls I saw last April and May. Do 
the gulls nest in the sand hills, I wonder? 
F. M. Wade, Canada. 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
I N answer to a letter in the January 
1 number of Forest and Stream about 
gulls and ducks, I wish to say that 
there is a certain species of gull that, 
through laziness or fun, one or the other, 
makes it a practice to rest on the water 
near some fish-eating duck and when the 
duck comes up with a live fish the gull 
will make an attempt to alight on his 
back. He does this to make the duck let 
go of the fish. Sometimes the duck will 
dive and when he comes up the gull will 
try to light on his back again. Some- 
times he will chase the duck quite a dis- 
tance. 
The other day I saw one of these gulls 
fly down on a saw-bill duck and instead 
of diving the duck took to wing and the 
gull chased him all over the bay making 
five or six circles, and, what surprised me, 
the duck could not out-fly the gull. They 
were from 10 to 20 feet apart all the 
time. 
Of course, the gull had the advantage 
of the race, as he could cut across on the 
curves, but it was some race. 
I have seen whole flocks leave the 
water when the gulls happen to act a 
little excited and commence to scream, 
but I think this is because they know 
that the gulls see something that they 
are afraid of. My experience is based 
on what I have seen on Puget Sound in 
the State of Washington. 
F. S. Sprague, Wash. 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
E the discussion in your columns as 
to gulls frightening wild ducks. Liv- 
ing for years on the Yukon river, in in- 
terior Alaska, I never met an old hunter 
or trapper who did not accept it as an es- 
tablished fact that gulls ate the eggs and 
young of both ducks and geese whenever 
found. (The gulls ascend the Yukon in 
summer for some two thousand miles.) 
So generally is this accepted that even 
some game wardens of my acquaintance 
shoot the gulls as a protection to the 
ducks and geese in their breeding 
grounds. Perhaps at least a dim mem- 
ory of this antagonism in the breeding 
season might make the ducks shy of gull 3 
even at the later season. 
Furthermore, if you will shoot a duck 
that falls on the opposite bank of a 
stream, and have to leave it in the com- 
pany of a flock of gulls while you put in 
a quarter or half an hour getting over 
to it, as you stand over the picked car- 
cass of what was once “a perfectly good 
duck” you will understand why a duck 
MIGHT dis.ike to have too many gulls 
around. 
Although I have spent years in the 
Arctic breeding grounds of ducks and 
geese, and my Arctic collections are not 
only in the Smithsonian, but in corre- 
sponding European museums as well, I 
am not presuming to speak authorita- 
tively on this matter; but I do, myself, 
accept the observations of highly intelli- 
gent hunters and trappers, such as fore- 
gather at Fort Yukon, for instance. 
(Dr.) Thomas E. Winecoff. 
Butte, Montana. 
A YOUNG TRAPPER 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
j AM sending you a picture of John 
A Magden, aged 15 years, who has been 
quite successful in trapping coyotes, near 
Meeker, Rio Blanca Co., Colorado, The 
four coyote skins shown in the picture 
netted him $85.00. 
H. N. Richmond, Colorado. 
CANOEING ON THE SACO RIVER 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
T N your last September issue you print- 
A ed a short article of mine in regard to 
canoeing on the Saco River. Since then, 
in spite of the fact that the only address 
you gave me was New Hampshire, I 
have had numerous letters requesting fur- 
ther information about this canoe trip. I 
have replied to all enquiries that I would 
write a letter to your magazine and 
describe the river. I am, therefore, send- 
