July, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
383 
granted for shooting it when it is actual- 
ly found doing harm” and “A reasonable 
reduction of numbers is justifiable in 
areas where there is an overabundance 
of the birds.” 
It is one thing to advocate the shoot- 
ing of crows in regions where they are 
too numerous and quite another thing 
to do it. For as every hunter knows, the 
crow is preeminently able to look after 
itself, and it is extremely hard to ap- 
proach within shot-gun range, or even 
sufficiently close to afford a reasonably 
sure mark for the rifle. But in crow- 
shooting if we cannot approach the crow 
we can get the crow to come to us. 
The first thing to do is to study the 
crow’s vocabulary rather closely, when 
we shall find that it does not utter the 
conventional “Caw” usually ascribed to 
it. In fact, there is no “c” in its note at 
all, the initial letter being “r”, and the 
call “R-ro.wr.” When a crow finds any- 
thing of interest and proceeds to call its 
confreres it says “Raw-awrr — raw-awrr” 
with a rising inflection on the “awrr.” 
A crow in distress utters a half-choked 
“ahrr-ahrr-ahrr.” Now after we have 
practised these two call-notes until we 
have both pitch and volume under con- 
trol and can utter them in a realistic 
manner, we can proceed on our crow- 
shooting expedition. 
It is a good plan to pick out a thick 
clump of trees from beneath which we 
can command a clear view of a tall 
dead tree, or of a tree with thin foliage. 
Then stationing ourselves under cover 
we give the gathering call, or if there 
are crows near at hand the lower distress 
call. The crows usually respond in- 
stantly and come and perch in the dead 
tree. It is well not to open fire until a 
good many crows have gathered, as when 
a large number are present, and when 
our calling has stirred them to a great 
pitch of excitement, we can shoot again 
and again without the flock leaving the 
spot, as long as we keep up the calling. 
It is possible under these conditions to 
kill two crows with practically every 
shot, with either shot-gun or rifle, by 
waiting until two are in line of fire. 
Sometimes with a shot-gun three may be 
secured at a shot and my best record is 
sixteen crows with seven shots. 
The best sport in this method of crow- 
shooting is, of course, with a small cali- 
bre rifle. Fair practice in wing shoot- 
ing may be had by using a 20-gauge shot 
gun as the birds wheel overhead. 
I have called up crows in this manner 
repeatedly in the same neighborhood, but 
it is to be recommended that the trick 
should not be practised too continuously 
in one spot. A. B. Klugh, Ontario. 
AN OLD NUMBER FOUND 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
I am sending you a copy of the Forest 
and Stream, dated Jan. 5th, 1888, 
which I found last week twenty-six miles 
from any settlement in an old camp, 
while on a canoe trip. 
You will note that it is in a very good 
state of preservation, although it had 
lain away in its lonely home for so 
many years. 
H. B. Stanwood, Maine. 
A RECORD MOOSE HEAD 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
L AST fail while guiding a party of 
1 sportsmen from the States on a hunt 
in the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, we 
picked up a rather remarkable moose 
head, a picture of which I enclose. We 
found it in the country between Funny 
River and Lake Tustumena. 
Andrew Berg, another guide attached 
to our party, claimed that the head be- 
longed to him, as he had shot a very large 
moose in this region a number of years 
ago and had cached the head in the place 
where we found it. 
We measured it very carefully with a 
steel tape and found that it had a spread 
of 76% inches. Undoubtedly the head 
when fresh would have measured at least 
two or three inches more and would have 
equalled, if not surpassed, the world’s 
record of 78% inches, which I believe is 
A record Alaska moose head 
on exhibition at the Field Museum in 
Chicago. Both Mr. Heyward Cutting and 
Mr. Oliver Wolcott, the sportsmen we 
were accompanying, suggested that the 
head should be placed in some museum 
and agreed to present it in Berg’s name to 
whatever institution he would name, but 
he would not part with it and it now 
adorns his cabin at Kenai. 
Walter Lodge, Seward, Alaska. 
A BIG TROUT 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
A N incentive to those who are now get- 
ting out their tackle, counting their 
supplies and longing to tread the banks 
of mountain streams will be the following 
account of a trout caught in Wyoming 
last fall just before the trout fishing sea- 
son closed. 
Charles Workman and Otto Koenig, 
two of Park County’s most persistent and 
expert fishermen, went a short distance 
from Cody to the Shoshone dam deter- 
mined to bring in the usual “big one.” 
Mr. Koenig cast in his line just a time or 
two when he felt a jerk and a heavy 
pull. After skilfully playing the fish, 
Mr. Koenig realized that he had lost in 
the fight. 
In a few moments, Mr. Workman 
changed his bait to a Colorado Spinner 
No. 3, and thirty minutes after the fish 
that had succeeded in getting away from 
Mr. Koenig, hit the same pool. The fish 
made a lunge for the spinner and was 
immediately hooked. After playing the 
trout in a game fight for five minutes, 
Mr. Koenig succeeded in bringing him to 
the shore, with the five ounce fly rod 
bending almost double under the weight. 
The catch was an eight pound cut 
throat or native trout, probably the larg- 
est one of its kind to be caught in the 
Shoshone River in Wyoming. It has been 
mounted and is now on display at the 
Post Office Store at Cody. 
Agnes R. Wright, Wyo. 
AN APPRECIATION 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
JDERHAPS it might interest you to 
■L state that I had been back but five 
days from a hunting trip into the Flor- 
ida Cypress when I read the story: 
"How Pomp Saved Our Christmas,” by 
E. R. Wilbur, in the December number of 
your magazine, which, no doubt, caused 
it to appeal to me all the more. I lived 
in Florida for seven years, and while 
living there took many hunts into the 
Cypress after deer and turkeys. There- 
fore, you can readily understand that 
I am in a position, more or less, to pass 
critical judgment on all stories of Flor- 
ida hunting. Mr. Wilbur’s descriptions 
of the, country, the cypress swamps, and 
the trailing of that big buck tally so 
well with some of my experiences down 
there that it almost seemed as though 
I was recounting some of my hunts. They 
were as true to life as they possibly 
could be. 
My hunt in November was a success. 
Game was very plentiful — particularly 
turkeys, which were so plentiful that we 
passed up shots every day because we 
already had all we needed. I saw sev- 
enteen deer in five days, and killed a 
dandy buck for my part of the spoils, 
as well as four turkeys, one of which 
was a seventeen pound gobbler. On two 
separate occasions I walked into the 
midst of a drove of turkeys. Once they 
flushed in front of me and sailed away 
amidst the palms like a covey of quail. 
The other time they used their long red 
legs and sped away into the palmettoes 
to safety. 
W. M. Garlington, Illinois. 
SNAKES AND TURKEYS 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
Y OUR recent article entitled “A Snake 
that Imitates a Rattler” reminds me 
of the fact that nearly all snakes would 
be rattlers in the ordinary acceptance 
of that term if possessed of rattles, if 
the vibrant motion of the tail when 
angry would indicate anything. I allude 
particularly to the black snake, king 
snake and chicken snake, whose oscilla- 
tion of the tail, when angry, is equal to 
anything of the kind that ever emanated 
