Aug. 25, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
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THE CARTER MUSEUM, DENVER, COL. 
Photograph by Joseph H. Langer, by courtesy of the Denver Post. 
The officers of the association that is at the 
head of the museum are: John F. Campion. 
President; A. E. Reynolds, Vice-President; J. 
A. Thatcher, Treasurer; and J. T. Mason, Secre¬ 
tary. Mr. Mason, whose experience dates back 
many years in the South Kensington Museum, 
London and the Smithsonian Institution, Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., is also the curator of the Colorado 
Museum. 
More About the Pinnated Grouse. 
The long article on the pinnated grouse pub¬ 
lished August 4, has awakened great interest and 
a number of comments on it have reached us. 
One of the most interesting of these is from 
Prof. Walter B. Barrows, of the Michigan Agri¬ 
cultural College, whose writings on ornitho¬ 
logical topics are familiar to many of our readers. 
Prof. Barrows says: 
“This bird was formerly fairly common over 
the southern half of the Lower Peninsula, and up 
to twenty years ago was abundant in many 
places in the prairie regions of the three south¬ 
ernmost tiers of counties. Even ten years ago 
it was not uncommon in this county (Ingham) 
and undoubtedly a few still exist here. I am 
not able to say positively where it is most abund¬ 
ant now, but my latest reports, some two and 
three years ago, indicated that there were still a 
good many in Calhoun, Kalafnazoo and Van 
Buren counties, and it is fair to presume that 
they were locally common in the three counties 
south of those and bordering Indiana. 
“There are vague Michigan accounts of the 
presence of this species along the Lake Michi¬ 
gan shore as far north as Traverse City fifty 
years ago, but I have no reason to believe that 
the species has ever been common north of the 
Saginaw Grand Valley in about latitude 43V2 
deg. The sharp-tailed grouse may at one time 
have existed in the upper part of the Lower 
Peninsula and in parts of the Upper Peninsula, 
but at present it is not known to occur except 
in Isle Royale in Lake Superior, where there 
appears to be a flourishing colony, but as yet I 
have been unable to obtain specimens so as to 
determine positively the subspecies. 
“The ruffed grouse is still an abundant bird 
over a large part of the State and occurs in 
greater or smaller numbers everywhere. It has 
been reduced in numbers rather noticeably in the 
last decade, but this probably is due more to 
the cutting off of the timber and the clearing 
up and cultivation of the land than to the gun.” 
From Mr. E. E. Earle, Chief Deputy Game 
Warden of the State of Indiana, we have a 
further memorandum about pinnated grouse 
which relates to the crop of the present season. 
Mr. Earle says: 
“Pinnated grouse are multiplying very rapidly 
in this State, there being greater numbers of 
these birds this year, judging from reports, than 
for many years heretofore. Laws protecting 
them are being rigorously enforced, and that to¬ 
gether with a healthy sentiment in behalf of 
saving them, is causing a great increase.” 
The Eagle and its Prey. 
Hamae, Norway. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have been much interested in the recent articles 
regarding the eagle, and will give you a “bunch” 
of experiences I have had with “the king of 
birds.” 
One fall, while hunting ptarmigan up in the 
mountains, I came across a lone sheep, lying on 
the ground that acted in a strange manner, and 
on investigating I found it was blind; both eyes 
had been torn out by an eagle which had left it 
to perish. 
It was one of the most pitiful sights I have 
ever seen, the poor animal lying there miles from 
any human being awaiting the slow death of 
starvation, occasionally weakly throwing its head 
from side to side in a vain effort to get rid of 
the flies that were swarming by the hundreds 
in its eyeless sockets. A charge of shot at close 
range quickly ended its sufferings; but it was 
a sight that always will remain in my memory 
and forever made me an enemy of the eagle. 
Another case was told me by a friend who was 
stalking a bunch of reindeer, when suddenly an 
eagle swooped down on to the back of a yearling. 
Of course it was too big for him, but he did his 
level best, and later on, when the deer got shot, 
its back was quite a good deal torn up by the 
eagle’s talons. I have several times, while hunt¬ 
ing hares with dog, observed eagles following the 
course of the hare watching for a chance to get 
him; but the climax came when an eagle tried to 
get my dog. The bird kept hovering over the 
dog’s back, occasionally making a dive for him, 
and every time the dog would make a savage 
snap. As I feared for the dog’s eyes I whistled 
him in, the eagle following, until within range, 
when its career was cut short by the old Reming-® 
ton. 
As your correspond Big Game says in the 
Forest and Stream of June 16, the eagle does 
take foxes, which is one point in the old pirate’s 
favor. 
In the district wh&re I generally do my hunt¬ 
ing is a valley with precipitous mountain sides 
and about a half mile across. 
One day an eagle was observed sailing across 
the valley with a fox in the talons. The fox 
was heavy, and it was far across. The bird came 
nearer and nearer the ground, and when within 
about a hundred feet, let gO' his quarry. The 
fox came down with a thump, but instantly 
slipped underneath some big boulders, where he 
was safe, but probably feeling rather “sliook up.” 
Ch. G. 
China’s Empress as a Bird Charmer. 
In her book “With the Empress Dowager” 
(The Century Company), Miss Katherine Carl 
gives this pretty picture of the strange power 
over birds exercised by the Empress: 
“On one of our promenades in the park I 
saw a curious instance of her wonderful per¬ 
sonal magnetism and her power over animals. 
A bird had escaped from its cage, and some 
eunuchs were making efforts to catch it, when 
her Majesty and suite came into that part of the 
grounds. The eunuchs had found it impossible 
to entice the bird back into its cage; nor would 
it come upon a long stick, with a perch at¬ 
tached, which they held up near the tree where 
it rested. The eunuchs scattered at the ap¬ 
proach of her Majesty, and she inquired why 
they were there. The chief eunuch explained 
what they were doing, and the Empress 
Dowager said, ‘I will call it down.’ I thought 
this was a vain boast, and in my heart I pitied 
her. She was so accustomed to have the whole 
world bow to her that she fancied even a 
bird in the grounds would obey her mandate, 
and I watched to see how she would take her 
defeat. She had a long, wand-like stick, which 
had been cut from a sapling and freshly stripped 
of its bark. She loved the faint forest odor of 
those freshly cut sticks, and in the spring often 
carried one when she went out. They were long 
and slender, with a crook at the top. I used 
to think she looked like the pictures of fairies 
when she walked with these long, white wands. 
She would use them for pointing out a flower 
she wished the eunuchs to gather, or for tracing 
designs on the gravel when she sat down. To¬ 
day she held the wand she carried aloft and made 
a low, bird-like sound with her lips, never taking 
her eyes off the bird. She had the most musical 
of voices, and its flute-like sound seemed like 
a magnet to the bird. It fluttered and began to 
descend from bough to bough until it lighted 
upon the crook of her wand, when she gently 
moved her other hand up nearer and nearer until 
it finally rested on her finger. I had been watch¬ 
ing with breathless attention, and so tense and 
absorbed had I become that the sudden cessa¬ 
tion when the bird finally came upon her finger 
caused me a throb of almost pain. No one else, 
however, of her. entourage seemed to think this 
anything extraordinary. After a few moments 
she handed the bird to one of the eunuchs, and 
we continued our promenade.” 
The Wild Pigeons. 
Edinburgh, Scotland. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: A copy of Forest and Stream of July 
7 has reached me. and I see that in my communi¬ 
cation on “The Fate of The Wild Pigeon” the 
types insert a “not,” which makes me say in 
one place the exact opposite of what I wrote 
or intended to write. Though all that followed 
showed my real meaning, yet I beg to correct 
the expression referred to. I was referring to 
the interesting papers of Mr. Waters detailing 
the testimony as to the known slaughter of the 
pigeons at their roosts, and I wrote, “The great 
and wanton slaughter certainly did take place 
exactly as these records set forth.” The types 
have it, “certainly did npt take place,” etc. 
I can hardly believe that the negative appears 
in my manuscript, for. as any one would see,, on 
reading the remainder of the article, I paid 
tribute to the faithfulness of Mr. Waters’ work— 
differing only from him in his inferences. 
I wish I might be able to send you some 
game notes from Scotland, but I am obliged to 
leave just as the shooting season begins, and 
my observations in the field have been, though 
of great interest to me, of too slight a character 
to present. C. H. Ames. 
STIMULATION WITHOUT REACTION 
After a day of enjoyable sport, it is wise to choose a 
drink which helps to restore the vital powers rather than 
one which tends to deplete them, as in the case with 
many drinks. Borden’s Malted Milk is delicious, con¬ 
centrated, nourishing, invaluable to the camper, made 
ready for use by adding water, hot or cold.— Adv. 
