52 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 14, 1906. 
to cover ten or twelve miles back and forth, I 
have seen the mating completed. 
Mr. Seton’s incident of the buck which took 
refuge among the horses of his party is a curious 
parallel to an incident that I have mentioned as 
occurring during the Black Hills expedition of 
1874, when a passenger pigeon, pursued by a 
duck hawk, dashed in among a resting group of 
the headquarter escort of Gen. Custer’s com¬ 
mand and, after twisting back and forth among 
the horses, alighted on one of the saddles, while 
the hawk hovered over us. G. B. G. 
The Sad Penguins. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I noticed in last week’s Forest and Stream 
a communication in which I was taken to task 
for having said that the penguins of the Antarc¬ 
tic wear a sad expression. Now I am free to 
confess that I have never been to the Antarctic, 
and to be candid, I have no particular desire to 
go there. Nevertheless, the region has a cer¬ 
tain fascination for me—as has also the Arctic— 
and I have read not a few books about them. 
• Among these, I have come across many refer¬ 
ences to the penguins, so that I may claim that 
my recent article was not written at haphazard 
or after seeing a few penguins in a cage, as 
your correspondent charges. 
The completest account of the birds I have 
found is given by Mr. Louis Bernacchi, F. R. 
G. S., in his work entitled “A Voyage to the 
Antarctic.” On page 66 of that work he says: 
"We had not walked many yards before we met 
the secluded and melancholy inhabitans of that 
south Polar land; these were the penguins scat¬ 
tered about it in groups of a hundred and more. 
They extended us but cold courtesy, and gravely 
regarded us from a distance; but on our ap¬ 
proaching closer, they evinced more interest 
and commenced talking loquaciously together 
in their own peculiar vernacular. They had evi¬ 
dently discovered that there was something un¬ 
usual about our appearance, and some were 
commissioned to investigate matters. These 
with perfect sang froid, slowly marched right up 
to our feet and ogled up at us in a most ludi¬ 
crous fashion. Flaving finished this scrutiny, 
they returned to their fellows as sedately as 
they had come, and thenceforth took no more 
notice of us. What impressed us greatly was 
the general appearance of sadness prevailing 
among them; they appeared to be under the 
shadow of some great trouble.” 
Here we have the testimony of a gentleman 
who saw the penguins, not in menageries, but 
in their native wilds, and he says they were sad. 
But perhaps, like the professional humorists, 
they only looked sad, being full of fun and 
merriment inside. 
Joking apart, it is a well-established principle 
of natural history that environment is largely 
responsible for the peculiar stamp of a man or 
animal, mentally and physically. To say, then, 
that an environment such as the Antarctic could 
beget as gay or happy a disposition as an en¬ 
vironment of sunshine and flowers is manifestly 
absurd. 
Your correspondent refers to certain char¬ 
acters of Hamlin Garland and Mary Wilkins, 
and says they are not true to nature. Possibly 
not. But 1 am sure that no man could live on 
a lonesome, wind-swept prairie, and no woman 
could live in a humdrum, narrow New England 
village without showing the effects of their en¬ 
vironments. As to the Eskimos, to whom .your 
correspondent also refers, I have seen some of 
these people in the flesh, and many more of them 
in photographs, and I am decidedly of the opin¬ 
ion that they did not look happy. In fact, such 
morosely miserable faces I never saw. Poor 
creatures, their lot is pretty much that of the 
penguins. Desolation, climatic horrors and 
coarse, precarious food have left their inevitable 
mark on them. 
But, asks your correspondent, if they feel 
unhappy, why don't they go away—seek a 
change of scene? This looks like a poser, but 
in reality it is very easy to answer. 
The simple fact is that birds, as well as men. 
are inured to their condition, and knowing no 
other, desire no change. And, indeed, a change 
would do them no good, for away from all to 
which they have been accustomed they would be 
only more sad or miserable still. 
But it must not be supposed I am contending 
that the penguins or Eskimos have no pleasure 
in their lives. Nothing of the kind. Un¬ 
doubtedly they have their moments of enjoy¬ 
ment, and in the main are content enough in a 
numb way. All I contend is that the normal 
state of their minds is one of sadness or a bleak 
dejection, which is only the reflection of the 
scenes amid which their destiny has cast them. 
Frank Moonan. 
New York, July 5. 
Buffalo for fhe Wichita Reserve. 
The offer made by the New York Zoological 
Society to the United States Government, regard¬ 
ing the placing of a herd of buffalo on the 
Wichita Forest Reserve in southwestern Okla¬ 
homa, has been accepted by the Government and 
the conditions named by the Society will be 
promptly met. 
It will be remembered that as an evidence of 
this desire to aid the Government in taking steps 
to preserve permanently the American bison from 
final extinction, the Zoological Society offered to 
the Government, as a gift, a herd of between 
fifteen and twenty buffalo, provided the Govern¬ 
ment would fence in a suitable range on the 
Wichita Forest and Game Reserve, wherein the 
herd could be maintained without the expense of 
constant feeding. This offer was so favorably 
received by the Department of Agriculture, that 
the Zoological Society sent an agent to the 
Wichita Forest Reserve to act in conjunction with 
the Forest Supervisor in charge of the reserva¬ 
tion in selecting and recommending an area suit¬ 
able to be fenced for buffaloes. The Society’s 
‘ agent, Mr. J. Alden Loring, acting in conjunc¬ 
tion and co-cperation with Supervisor Morrissey, 
selected an area of about twelve square miles of 
good grazing grounds, provided with permanent 
water and shelter from storms. Immediately 
upon the presentation of this report, the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture and Mr. Madison Grant se¬ 
cured the insertion in the Agricultural Bill of an 
item appropriating $15,000 with which to erect 
the fence necessary for an inclosure for the main¬ 
tenance of the buffalo herd. 
Inasmuch as the Agricultural Appropriation Bill 
is now a law, the fund is available, and the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture proposes to take imme¬ 
diate steps to procure the erection of the fence. 
As soon as the fence has been completed, the 
Zoological Society will deliver its gift buffalo herd 
in the new buffalo range. 
The New York Zoological Society desires it 
to be distinctly understood that its gift of a 
buffalo herd is prompted solely by patriotic 
motives, and not, as has been erroneously alleged, 
because the buffaloes in the Zoological Park are 
not doing well. As a matter of fact, no buffaloes 
in captivity are in finer condition, or breeding 
more rapidly, than those in Bronx Park, which is 
to-day the largest and finest herd on public ex¬ 
hibition anywhere. 
It is conceded, however, by the Zoological So¬ 
ciety. and by all competent authorities, that the 
American bison cannot be preserved from ultimate 
extinction and carried through several centuries 
by breeding in the close confinement of zoologi¬ 
cal gardens and parks. This noble animal can be 
saved only by establishing herds on very large 
areas, so^ that the animals will be in a semi-wild 
.condition and will thereby obtain the exercise 
■that is absolutely necessary to their permanent 
welfare. 
It is hoped that the fencing of the Wichita 
Buffalo Range can be accomplished in time for 
the herd to be transferred from the New York 
Zoological Park sometime in October or Novem¬ 
ber of the present year. It would of course be 
inadvisable for the animals to be taken from 
sheltered captivity and turned loose in a wild 
country in midwinter; nor would it be possible 
to move the buffaloes just previous to calving 
time in the spring, owing to the danger of costly 
accidents. 
It is hoped that the example of the Zoological 
Society in thus co-operating with the Govern¬ 
ment in establishing another national buffalo herd 
will stimulate other owners of buffalo to do like¬ 
wise. 
The Sullivan County Pigeons. 
West Park, N. Y., June 30.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Since I wrote you a few weeks 
ago, I have been looking up the men who were 
reported to have seen wild pigeons recently. I 
have seen six men who are positive they have 
seen flocks of wild pigeons—some of them two 
years ago, and some of them this past spring. 
As these men were all past middle age and had 
been familiar with the pigeon thirty and forty 
years ago and were, moreover, men reported 
truthful and sober by their neighbors, and who 
impressed me as being entirely reliable, I feel 
bound to credit their several statements. At De 
Bruce, Sullivan county, Mr. Cooper, the post¬ 
master and village blacksmith, said he had seen 
a large flock of pigeons in the fall two years ago. 
They were about a buckwheat field. He pointed 
out the hill about which they were flying. Mr. 
Cooper had shot and trapped a great many pigeons 
years ago, and was sure he could not mistake 
any other bird for a pigeon. A farmer, whose 
name I do not now remember and who heard 
Mr. Cooper’s statement, said he saw a large flock 
last fall about a buckwheat field, in the same 
town. This man was reported to me as per¬ 
fectly reliable, and he gave me that impression. 
At Port Ewen, I met a Hudson River shad 
fisherman, Mr. Van Vliet, who said he had seen 
early one morning in April or May, two. years 
ago, a flock of wild pigeons over the Hudson. 
He estimated the flock as containing seventy or 
eighty birds. Mr. Van Vliet is a man nearly 
seventy years old, and one cannot look into his 
face and have him speark and doubt for a moment 
the truth of what he is saying. When I asked 
him if he knew the wild pigeon, he smiled good 
humoredly and said he knew them as well as he 
knew anything; he had lived in the time of 
pigeons, and had killed hundreds of them. 
Another man, one of the leading grocerymen 
of Port Ewen, said he had seen a very large flock 
of pigeons between four and five o’clock on May 
15 last, flying over, as he was on his way to open 
his store. His hired man, who was with him, 
also saw them. Mr. Van Leuven had also seen 
pigeons in his youth and described to me ac¬ 
curately their manner of flight and the form of 
the flock against the sky. A neighbor of his told 
me he had seen a flock of fifteen or twenty 
pigeons on a foggy morning only a few days be¬ 
fore. The rush of their wings overhead first 
attracted his attention to them. But he had never 
seen wild pigeons, and might have been deceived, 
though he was sure they were pigeons by their 
speed and general look. 
None of these men could have had any motive 
in trying to deceive me, and I feel bound to 
credit their stories. Their statements, taken in 
connection with the statement of my old school 
fellow at Prattsville, N. Y., of whom I wrote you, 
makes me believe that there is a large flock of 
wild pigeons that still at times frequents this part 
of the State, and perhaps breeds somewhere in the 
wilds of Sullivan or Ulster county. But they 
ought to be heard from elsewhere—from the south 
or southwest in winter. John Burroughs. 
P. S.—Just as I finished the above, I come upon 
the following in the Poughkeepsie Sunday 
Courier: 
"We noticed recently an item asking whether 
wild pigeons are returning. Sullivan county peo¬ 
ple seem to be taking the lead in answering the 
question, but a Dutchess county farmer named 
David Rosell, living near Fishkill Plains, who 
was familiar with the aforesaid birds in old days, 
reports having seen a flock of about thirty feed¬ 
ing on his buckwheat patch one morning last 
week, which gives evidence that the birds are not 
extinct as supposed, but a flock may merely be 
taking a tour around the world like Magellan of 
old. Mr. Rosell stated that he had not seen any 
before in about forty years. At first sight, he 
could hardly believe his eyes, but he was not long 
in becoming convinced of their identity.” 
Wild pigeons were observed at Mount Tom, 
Mass., in May. The Springfield Republican 
